The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : STF personnel get cash rewards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 29, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

STF personnel get cash rewards

Staff Reporter

Many constables angry, say they have been paid a pittance for the years of service

WELL DONE: Home Minister M.P. Prakash greeting police personnel who were members of the Special Task Force after presenting cash rewards to them in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: The controversy over rewarding Special Task Force (STF) personnel who were engaged in the anti-Veerappan operations refuses to die down even after the State Government gave rewards in cash to the personnel at a function here on Friday.

Many of those present at the ceremony did not disguise their anger and hurt at the perceived discrimination in the apportioning of the reward money. Police constables who took part in the operations questioned the rationale in the variation in payment.

Discrimination seen

"We have been paid a pittance. There has been discrimination between those who were part of the STF when Veerappan was killed and those who took part in the earlier operations," said a Karnataka State Reserve Police constable, who served in the STF headed by Harshavardhan Raju, requesting anonymity. "I have been given Rs. 500 for my nine years of service in the STF," he said.

Many KSRP constables said the State Government had shown the least consideration for the services rendered by them in reducing the strength of Veerappan's gang from 175 to five. "We have been paid rewards ranging from Rs. 300 to Rs. 5,000," said one of them. They were angry that senior officers had been given far higher amounts.

The constables said the Tamil Nadu Government did not discriminate between ranks while apportioning the reward money. The Karnataka Government had not kept its promise of giving Rs. 100 for every day of service in the STF, an increment and a site.

Refuting the allegations, Home Minister M.P. Prakash told presspersons that the Government had given rewards to all deserving STF personnel. "All are happy about it," he claimed. On the criterion on which an IPS officer was given Rs. 1.6 crore, Mr. Prakash said, "We have discussed it thrice and it has been reported in newspapers." Earlier, Mr. Prakash presented cash rewards totalling over Rs. 17.50 crore to 754 STF personnel deployed during the killing of Veerappan in October 2004. Mr. Prakash handed over rewards to 319 personnel here, while the rest will be receiving the rewards in their respective districts.

Mr. Prakash also presented rewards totalling Rs. 10.50 crore to those employed in the STF from 1993 onwards: four commanders, 326 police officers, 2,161 police personnel, 53 Forest Department and Border Security Force personnel and 102 others.

Among the senior officers who were rewarded were M.K. Srivastava, Shankar Bidari, Kempaiah, B.S. Sandhu, and Jyothi Prakash Mirji.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Prakash regretted the delay in distributing the rewards. "The reward is minuscule compared to the courage that you showed in putting an end to the Veerappan menace," he said. He promised the STF personnel that they would be allotted a house site as promised by the Government.

Director-General and Inspector-General of Police B.S. Sial and Bangalore Police Commissioner N. Achuta Rao participated in the function.

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