Railway Police needs special attention of new government

Islamabad : Over the years the governments have successfully taken several steps for rehabilitation and improvement of railway sector. However, no attention was paid by any government to rehabilitate the condition of Railway Police which doing their professional duties equal to the federal and Punjab police are in return getting step mother treatment .

As told by the serving police officials of railways on anonymity condition, they are not receiving the same kind of perks which otherwise are provided to the police personnel of federal and Punjab police. Though the duty is same .

The monthly emoluments of police officers and ASIs, SIs, constables of Pakistan Railways is very low. Besides these they are not being provided other kind of allowances which are given to Punjab and federal police officials.

Apart from these grievances , the condition of Railway Police station, Rawalpindi also needs attention for renovation . The ceiling fans of Railway Police Station, Rawalpindi which are already short are not operating properly or have gone out of order.

The police constables stated that the rest room is not being used due to non availability of necessary facilities. As we are deprived of facilities, have to pay petrol amount and private vehicles/cabs from our own pocket to arrest the culprits and take and bring back them from kutcheri. Our spent amount is not refunded. It has become difficult to manage spending money from our own sources because of low salaries and non availability of perks /allowances, they claimed.

No governments in the past paid attention for resolving issues confronted to railway police, they claimed. Similarly, no government thought necessary to take steps for renovation of Railway Police Station, Rawalpindi. All attention during the PML-N government was paid on improving conditions of trains, increasing their numbers, purchasing locomotives, however, the department of railway police remained totally neglected resulting in increase in our financial hardships, they alleged. We also approached courts including district, IHC and Supreme Court which gave verdict in our favour and had directed the government during PPP rule to enforce the decision which included making raise in our salaries in accordance with the Punjab police. However, the decisions of courts have not been implemented during PPP and PML-N government. As a result we are suffering a lot and financial great hardships. Besides this, the scales of police constables have not been upgraded since long which is a matter of grave concern, they alleged.

Medical allowance facility being provided to us is just Rs300 per month. Due to this meager amount, we fail to get better medical treatment. They demanded raise in medical allowance up to Rs2 thousand per month besides making raise in our salaries which should be equal to the Punjab Police officials. The new federal minister for railways, Sheikh Rashid should take notice of our problems and get them resolved by taking effective steps, they demanded. We have high hopes with Sheikh Rashid and believe he would resolve our issues in effective and practical way , the police personnel said.

On approaching SHO, Railway Police, Rawalpindi, Javed Iqbal Gujar reserved his comments on the issues confronted to railway police. However, he stressed that steps are needed from the new government as well as related minister for resolution of our salaries and medical problems. Similarly, the number of our vehicles are also short and needed to be increased besides police force.