Nothing new. But these are no domestic servants but head constables appointed as orderlies to assist senior police officers.
A colonial relic, the system of orderlies is alive and thriving big time in the State.
Despite a recommendation six months ago to do away with it, the system continues and continues to be misused by many senior police officials here.
Orderlies are made to do menial jobs not prescribed at all by the Karnataka State Police Manual. While many orderlies have complained of stress and discrimination over the years, such behaviour by seniors proved fatal for 45-year-old KSRP constable Sreekanth on Monday, who died after falling from a tree. He was cutting a branch as instructed allegedly by an inspector’s wife.
According to police, Sreekanth was attached to KSRP inspector Kushalappa as orderly 15 days ago.
According to the rules prescribed by the Karnataka State Police Manual, an orderly has to assist his boss in official work. But there are instances where orderlies have been forced to do all sorts of household work, causing them endless mental trauma.
According to statistics, there are 3,348 orderlies attached to officers from the rank of inspectors to DG and IGP. The rule says an inspector should get one orderly and a DySP two. The number goes up depending on the rank of the officials. ADGPs and DGPs get six constables as orderlies. Ironically, all these orderlies are drawn from the cadre of 14,596 armed constables from the City Armed Reserves and the District Armed Reserves.
According to a senior police officer, it was recommended to abolish the age-old orderly system. “While some of the officers agreed to stop this, some did not even bother to go through the recommendation. Many of them were of the view that since the government is not worried about the system, why should the department act on its own on this issue,” the officer said. “The number of orderlies (3,348) is much higher, as most of the officers have orderlies more than the prescribed number. Such officers don’t really respect human beings. They are more worried about the health of their pets. Apart from helping in official work, the orderlies have to do other menial jobs like dropping and bringing the officers’ children from school, wash the clothes of their family members, and even take their dogs out,” the officer said.
The government spends nearly Rs 5 to Rs 6 crore on these constables towards their salary and other expenditure per month.
“This is simply wasting government funds. These constables are recruited for something else and end up doing some other things. Instead, their resources can be tapped by giving them refresher courses and other in-service training, especially when we have a dearth of manpower in the department,” the officer said.