Three months on, 3000 Armed Reserve cops yet to get October salary

The city police top brass claimed that the policemen have been paid their November and December salary and only October salary was pending. AR constables, who live on a meagre salary allege that sloppy administrative practice was the reason for the delay. It is reliably learnt that the state finance department has already issued a memo to the Chennai city police’s accounts section, seeking an explanation as to why such a delay had occurred. 

While the city police officials blame the delay on the holidays in between, the fact remains that the non-issuance of last pay transfer certificate from the TSP battalion was the cause for the goof up. “We have been posted from TSP to Chennai armed reserve in October and are yet to get the salary. We were asked to wait whenever we raised questions in this regard,” an AR policeman said. 

Due to the strict hierarchical nature of the force, most of the affected policemen are scared to take up the issue in a public platform. “Such inter-departmental issues go unnoticed and there are no senior officials to work in our interest,” another AR policeman said. 

When contacted, a senior police official attached to Chennai city police played down the incident and said the AR policemen were paid their November and December salaries. 

“There was delay in payment of October salary as they worked 10 days with the TSP battalion and remaining 20 days with the Chennai city police. So the issue was regarding the last pay transfer certificate. The bill has already been cleared and is with the principal account office. It will be solved in a few days,” he said. 

The official, however, blamed the long holidays for the delay and refused to admit that there was an administrative goof up. AR policemen say that if the battalion and the city police had acted responsibly, they could have done away with the delay. 

“Our lives are completely dependent on the monthly salary and most of us are the only breadwinners in our family. A month’s salary means a lot to us and we were forced to borrow money at high interest rates,” another AR policeman said.