Patna: Police station house officers (SHOs) whose salaries were ordered to be stopped as a penal measure have received their pay as usual for the month of November.

Deputy inspector-general (DIG), Patna range, Rajesh Kumar had on Thursday issued an order to stop the salaries of 70 SHOs for lower number of arrests in their respective areas. But their salaries were credited in their accounts on Thursday night itself.

All day on Friday, confusion prevailed among these officers: if the boss had ordered a bar on their salaries, how did they get it? Does it mean the order had been rescinded?

Patna central range inspector-general (IG) N.H. Khan sought to clear the air.

"The salary which was credited in the accounts of the SHOs was for the month of November. The DIG had issued the directive to stop the salary for the month of December," Khan said.

"As per the DIG's order, SHOs will not get their salaries for the month of December," he added.

Khan said that any senior officer from the rank of SP upwards has the power to withhold the salaries of officials working under him or her.

DIG Kumar had issued the directive as it was discovered during a review that no FIR had been registered in the police stations concerned from November 23 to 28. This, after Kumar had directed the SHOs to conduct raids at regular intervals against criminals and anti-social elements involved in criminal activities and illegal liquor supply.

Members of the Bihar Police Association led by its state president Mritunjay Kumar Singh on Friday submitted a memorandum to IG Khan, protesting against the directive, which, if not revoked, would mean SHOs will go without pay for an indefinite period from December.

"Stopping salaries is not going to help in effective policing. In the absence of salaries, entire families will be affected," he said.

"The DIG's order is a step taken to gain cheap popularity as there are several ways to penalise police personnel such as transfer, forwarding to police lines and even suspension," Singh added.

He said the association will approach the DGP if no action is taken in this connection.

IG Khan has called a meeting next week with the DIG and the senior superintendent of police to review the situation arising out of the stop-salary directive.