The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday announced a 25 per cent hike in the nutritious diet allowance for policemen and a Rs 2,000 annual grant to meet the cost of recharging mobile phone SIM cards.
The announcement was made by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the Police Commemoration Day when he also paid tributes to the police personnel who laid down their lives in the line of duty.
Yogi Adityanath also said the families of all policemen who died of COVID-19 while discharging their duty are being given an ex gratia of Rs 50 lakh each.
A sum of Rs 37 lakh has been paid so far to the families of policemen, who died of Covid, a UP government statement said.
Police personnel up to the rank of inspectors are presently being paid nutritious diet allowances between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,600, depending upon their rank, ranging from constable and other grade IV employees to inspectors, the statement said.
The chief minister also asked the Police Department to provide mobile phones and their SIM cards to policemen engaged in field duty and often needed to rush to the crime scene and said such policemen will be given a SIM card allowance of Rs 2,000 every year, the statement said.
The chief minister also exhorted policemen to discharge their duty with honesty and devotion to instill a sense of security among people, the statement said.
He said a total of 23,075 police personnel have been promoted to various non-gazetted posts and a proposal has been sent to the Police Recruitment and Promotion Board to recruit 829 sub-inspectors and 26,744 constables more.
Yogi Adityanath said his government is working under a policy of zero tolerance towards crime and criminals.
"As a result, 151 criminals were killed in encounters and 3,473 were injured between March 20, 2017 and October 10, 2021. In this action, 13 police personnel displayed valour and attained martyrdom and 1,198 police personnel were injured," he said.
