Bengal restructures Police Welfare Board
Kolkata: In a bid to ensure that all support is provided to the police personnel when they are fighting selflessly for the society, the state government is restructuring the Police Welfare Board with 65 district level committees besides the 12-member central committee.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced the restructuring of the Police Welfare Board on August 17 to ensure benefits of the rank and file of the West Bengal Police and the Kolkata Police.
Sources said that the restructured welfare board will be announced on September 1 when the Chief Minister, who is also the state Home minister, will be attending the first "Police Divas" to be celebrated in the state.
There will be 65 district level committees under the 12-member central committee of the Police Welfare Board comprising police officers from the state Intelligence Branch, third battalion of the State Armed Police, Government Railway Police (GRP), different police commissionerates and districts.
Giving the bifurcation of the 65 district level committees, sources in the state government has stated that there will be 23 committees for each of the districts, five for the five police districts, six police commissionerates, four GRP divisions, six special units including Enforcement Branch, Special Branch and Criminal Investigation Department and battalions including that of 13 state armed police. There will be three separate committees for DG control, state vigilance commission and telecommunication division.
There will be six members in each of these committees with police personnel of different ranks. Following the direction of the Chief Minister, the task related to finalisation of the committees has been carried out by the Protocol Branch of the state Home department, sources said.
The Chief Minister had announced that the office bearers of the committees will be provided with all necessary infrastructure including a car so that they can properly execute their service.
The district level committees will be submitting their recommendations and reports to the central level committee for further steps.
On Police Divas, the Chief Minister will be interacting with the rank and file of both the state and Kolkata Police through video conference from Nabanna Sabhaghar when felicitation to COVID-19 warriors in districts will also take place.
