Get Fit In 3 Months Or Retire: Assam Top Cop On Plan To Remove "Deadwood"

The Assam Police will professionally record the Body Mass Index (BMI) of all its personnel, including IPS officers, in a drive to eventually get rid of "deadwood" from the police force. Cops will be given three months to work on their fitness, after which BMIs will be recorded.

"We plan to give three months time to all Assam Police personnel including IPS & APS officers till August 15th and then start BMI assessment in the next fifteen days," Director General of Police GP Singh tweeted today.

All those who are in the obese category (BMI 30+) would be offered another three months to reduce weight and would be offered Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) after that. Those who have genuine medical grounds like hypothyroidism will be exempt, Mr Singh said, adding that he would be the first to have the BMI taken, on August 16. The Assam police employ around 70,000 personnel.

The Assam top cop had last week said that they have drawn up a list of over 650 personnel who are purportedly habitual drinkers or obese, and those among them found unfit for duty will be offered voluntary retirement after a thorough review.

"We already have a list of about 680 persons. However, to ensure that no name is added without logical basis, we have formed committees in battalions and districts, which will be headed by a deputy commandant or an additional SP-rank officer," Mr Singh said on May 8.

Those whose names appear on the list but are unwilling to take VRS will not be assigned field duty, Mr Singh had said.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, at a virtual meeting with the top police brass recently, had strongly advocated for removing the deadwood from the police force - habitual drinkers, those with extreme obesity and with charges of corruption against them - to turn the force into a responsive and action-oriented one, an official statement had said.

"The government has a provision for giving VRS to them. It is an old rule but we had not implemented it earlier. This time, we have started working on it," Mr Sarma, who also holds the Home portfolio, said later. Those who will be offered VRS will continue getting their full salary and new recruitment will be done to fill the vacancies, he had said.