The Bengal government has decided to promote as constables 5,400 junior constables, mainly youths in Jungle Mahal districts who were appointed on a temporary basis to stop their shift to the Maoist ideology.

The move has come at a time the Trinamul Congress is trying to claw back in the adivasi-populated Jungle Mahal where the BJP performed well in the last Lok Sabha polls.

“All 5,400 junior constables posted in the districts of Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore and Birbhum would be promoted as full-fledged constables in the police force. They will be eligible for all facilities and benefits that constables get,” said chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

She made the announcement while addressing police personnel across the state through video conference during a programme that the state government organised to acknowledge the role of the law enforcers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most of the junior constables were recruited after Trinamul had come to power in 2011 as the government had tried to wean local youths away from the influence of the ultra Lefts in the area. The move did pay off as Maoist insurgency saw a decline and Trinamul won the confidence of local people.

The junior constables had been appointed on a temporary basis and such an arrangement was confined to the Jungle Mahal.

The ruling party got the first shock in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as the BJP did well in the adivasi belt.

“The Maoists are trying to regroup now... The ruling party is eager to win back its support base in the areas and the chief minister is apparently depending heavily on these youths,” said a senior government official.

Recently, reports had reached Nabanna from various districts that discontent had been brewing among the lower section of the police force.

“The grievance was mainly because police personnel were forced to work beyond scheduled hours during the pandemic. The policemen started raising their voices when a number of their colleagues contracted Covid-19 and some of them died,” said another senior official.

The chief minister herself said 6,963 police personnel had been infected across the state and 24 of them had lost their lives. “They (police) risked their lives day in and day out to serve the people of the state,” said Mamata.

The police also supplied food to the families of Covid patients and those in home isolation or at remote quarantine centres. Moreover, the police have taken steps to take Covid patients to the hospitals.

“These were the responsibilities of the civil administration over the years. Since 2011, the role of police has changed and the state government is dependent heavily on the police than the civil administration. The state, which is over-reliant on the police, has been shaken by the grievances in the lower and middle rung of the force,” said a senior bureaucrat.

Sources said the chief minister did not want to be at the receiving end of the lower and middle rung of the police ahead of the polls as they played a key role in the entire election process.

“The central forces are deployed during the polls and they need to work under the state police. So, the chief minister wants to address their grievances at the earliest,” said an official.Mamata also made a series of other announcements in her address.

They are:

⚫Retirement benefit of Rs 3 lakh for civil defence volunteers, civic volunteers, village police volunteers, auxiliary fire workers and ASA workers

⚫Daily wages of home guards and civil defence volunteers increased to Rs 548 from Rs 480

⚫Bonus of Rs 2,000 for civic volunteers, village police volunteers, auxiliary fore workers, ASA workers, civil defence volunteers and home guards

⚫Three new police stations

⚫Nine new police station buildings

⚫Four new police barracks