Police constables in Karnataka eager to perform real duties

BENGALURU: Ramaiah has been a police constable for many years but all that the 48-year-old can recall is his time spent cooking, cleaning and even clearing cow dung at the residences of senior officers.

Ramaiah (name changed), last assigned to the residence of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, and about 1,200 other constables and head constables in the city are hoping they can finally do what they signed up for.

Following an agitation by the constabulary last year, the State Home Department issued a notification this month abolishing the system of orderlies introduced by India's former British rulers in the 19th century.

The constables and head constables will be assigned regular police work, bolstering a force struggling with a staff crunch. It's something one of the six orderlies posted at the residence of orderlies posted at the residence of a senior State police officer is looking forward to.

"Soon after I was recruited in 2001, I was deployed as an orderly at a senior officer's house in Bengaluru.I thought my job would be to attend phone calls and help the officer with police work," this person said, declining to be identified as did the other orderlies who spoke for this report.

"But I was assigned to do all types of work, from taking their kids to school and bringing them back. I have not dropped or picked up my own kids from school even once. I don't feel like I am in the police department."

The Karnataka government spends Rs 70 crore to Rs 80 crore every year to provide about 3,300 orderlies for senior officers across the state. These orderlies will now be replaced with whom the government calls 'followers.'