R.G. Kar case: Victim’s parents praise Supreme Court’s intervention on civic volunteers

On October 15, the top court raised questions about the role, hiring process, and authority of the civic volunteers in West Bengal; prime accused Sanjay Roy was a civic volunteer

Parents of the R.G. Kar rape and murder victim welcomed the Supreme Court intervention on recruitment of civic volunteers. The prime accused in the rape and murder of the doctor was a civic police volunteer.

After the court order, the parents said that if such contractual civic volunteers and workers stay prevalent in the State then no safety can be ensured for any doctors or hospital staff.

On Tuesday, October 15, the Supreme Court of India raised questions about the role, hiring process, and authority of the civic volunteers in West Bengal.

“How many such civic volunteers do you have in West Bengal?” asked the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud. He also said that the hiring of these civic volunteers into the police force could be a “nice process of conferring political patronage on people who are totally unverified”.

The top court also asked the West Bengal State government to file a detailed affidavit on the “source of authority” for recruitment of civic volunteers.

West Bengal has over 7,200 civic volunteers with the Kolkata Police and the strength of the volunteers is over 1.24 lakh in the whole State. Whereas the police force itself is 79,024. The honorarium of civic police volunteers is now ₹310.00 per day (about ₹9,300 per month). The ad-hoc bonus of such civic volunteers has been increased from ₹5,300 to ₹6,000 for the year 2023-2024.

“Government has over 3.5 lakh vacancies in different departments. They do not fill up these vacancies, rather keep the money with themselves and appoint only contractual workers like the civic volunteers and pay them small amounts and enjoy their loyalty to stay in power,” Communist Part of India (Marxist) leader Sujan Chakraborty alleged while speaking to The Hindu about the issue.

He also raised questions about the fact that if they are called a “civic volunteer” then why are they given police duties and are allowed to exert the same level of authority and power. He said that either they should be put in specific department payrolls where they work to ensure clarity or they should be made permanent, the floating nature of these volunteers security issues.

Impasse continues 

Incidentally, the junior resident doctors’ protest and fast until death has reached its 12th day on Wednesday. Seven doctors have already been admitted to the hospital after the fast took a toll on their health and they fell ill; of these five were in Kolkata, and two in North Bengal. Eight junior doctors are still fasting as they ask for justice for their colleague’s death and demand safety for all medical professionals in hospitals.

The impasse between the doctors and the West Bengal State government has failed to come to an end even after over two months of doctors being on the roads.

Rumelika Kumar, a junior doctor who joined the fast on October 15 after her fellow protestors fell sick said, “Our fellow doctors are falling sick, so the authorities think our movement is becoming weak, but they are wrong. We will make the movement stronger. To keep that emotion alive, I am joining the indefinite hunger strike.” 

Published - October 17, 2024 03:31 am IST