It has been nearly three weeks that a civic volunteer has been taken under custody as the prime suspect for the rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
As the state’s biggest festival Durga Puja approaches, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s seems to have opened its coffers for civic volunteers.
The state government has enhanced the termination benefit of civic volunteers after the age of 60 from the existing ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh, according to an order issued on August 28.
“The amount of one time terminal benefit in respect of the Civic Volunteers under West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police and the Village Police Volunteers under West Bengal Police will be increased from ₹3,00,000 to ₹5,00,000 on existing terms and conditions,” reads the order, which states that the decision was taken after “careful consideration” and will be implemented from April 1 this year.
It has been learnt that the West Bengal government has announced a 13 per cent hike in ad-hoc bonus of civic volunteers in the state.
According to the state finance department, last year the civic volunteers received ₹5,300 as ad-hoc bonus and this year they will get ₹6,000 before Durga Puja.
In a notification issued by the government, it mentioned that civic volunteers of West Bengal police, Kolkata police as well as village police will be entitled to receive the same.
Copies of the orders were, reportedly, marked to the acting director-general of police Rajeev Kumar and Calcutta police commissioner Vineet Goyal.
Who are civic volunteers?
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Kolkata Police had enrolled 560 volunteers, which included 56 women on a per day allowance of ₹89. It was August 2, 2008 when this practice began.
Keeping the area of operation free from ragpickers, collecting information on unauthorised parking or hawking, protecting and maintaining trees in the Maidan area and the parks, passing information on waterlogging— these were their responsibilities.
Primarily, they were deployed in directing traffic on city streets.
As per a senior officer in the Kolkata Police, this was the first such contingent to be brought into the policing system.
In January 2013, two years after CM Banerjee came to power, she announced that 1,26,000 civic CM volunteers would be recruited, whom she introduced as ‘civic police’.
It has been learnt that after objections from the Police Association, the word ‘police’ was dropped and the word ‘volunteers’ was used instead.
As far as their recruitment is concerned, reportedly, SPs in the districts and the divisional deputy commissioners in Kolkata Police were given the task of facilitating their recruitment.
However, unlike other forces like the home guard, the government never set up a controlling authority on them.
For example, the West Bengal Home Guards Act was enacted in 1962 which made the Calcutta police’s commissioner and the district superintendents of police the ex-officio additional commandant general of the home guards.
Before that, the national volunteer force was created with the West Bengal National Volunteer Force Act of 1949 for recruiting residents including domiciled ones who may offer themselves for such enrolment for service during a period of emergency or as and when desired by the state government.
It has been learnt that for over 100000 civic volunteers recruited by the state government till date, there is no single controlling authority.
Reports claim that the officers-in-charge of the police stations in the city and the inspectors-in-charge in the district police stations recruit youth, often on the recommendations of the local ruling party bosses.
During the 2018 panchayat elections, the role of the civic volunteers and the ruling Trinamool Congress’s dependence on the force came into focus. The force was deployed for the first time on poll duty despite protests from the Opposition.
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