Bhubaneswar, April 15: The top cop of Orissa is on a mission to get policemen back in shape.

Delivering a message to unfit and overweight cops, director-general of police Bipin Bihari Mishra has issued an order that officers, posted in 450 police stations and traffic squares, need to shed the flab because it makes them the ?laughing stock of society?. The circular was issued on Tuesday to all district police chiefs.

?They have to reduce their paunches in the next two months or leave the police stations. It?s truly abominable to see pot-bellied cops manning the streets,? Mishra said. The police chief wants to see the results before he retires from the top job on June 29. Those who fail to meet the deadline will be transferred, the order says.

According to Mishra, there are many cops in the state who are, literally, not fit to be ?crimebusters?. ?The physically unfit cops are unable to discharge their duties as alert policemen.? Forty inches is the limit, the order has specified.

While his predecessors did not take fitness all that seriously, Mishra?s initiative holds out hope for the people of the state, who would like to see policemen with well-toned bodies doing their bit to protect society from criminals.

Mishra feels that after getting their jobs, most policemen stop working out properly. The state has about 40,000 police personnel, of which about one-third is likely to fail the fitness test.

The policemen in the firing line say the paunch is not of their making. ?We did not have any paunch when we were commissioned. Sleepless nights, irregular eating, occupational hazards and troubled personal lives have resulted in this,? said an inspector at a police station in Bhubaneswar.

A policeman?s job is the most taxing ? both physically and psychologically ? of all government professionals, feel cops in the city.

Besides the routine job of maintaining law and order, long hours of work during visits by VVIPs, bandobast at the time of religious functions and no regular off-days combine to make life stressful for the men in khaki, they add.

In the wake of the DGP?s directive, a number of policemen are now planning to build a fitness regime, which includes morning walks and daily workouts. Some are also thinking about joining fitness centres in their bid to stay in shape.