Patna, May 2: The state police headquarters has proposed a 30 per cent additional pay for personnel posted with the newly formed economic offences unit (EOU) on the pattern of the special task force (STF) and the proposed police academy at Rajgir in Nalanda.

The proposal submitted to the home department today seeking approval of the government said the EOU was carved out of the criminal investigation department (CID) last year to deal with importance cases of economic offences in the state. “Economic offences have of late gained alarming proportions and they need utmost attention,” the proposal said.

According to the suggestion, there is a provision for 30 per cent hike in pay scale and grade pay for the police personnel posted with the STF and the police academy. The same should be paid to the policemen of the EOU, which has been set up to curb economic crimes, fake currency cases, human trafficking, sale of narcotics and financial irregularities in public welfare schemes and others.

“If the recommendation of the headquarters is approved by the government, about 250 policemen posted with the EOU will be benefited,” said a senior police officer. He said the proposal was formally submitted to the police headquarters by the inspector-general (IG) of police, EOU, Pravin Vashishtha, a few days back.

The government has sanctioned 142 posts in different categories for the EOU, which is headed by an IG rank officer and functions under the directive control of the director-general of police Abhyananand. Besides IG, the EOU has one post of DIG, three posts of superintendents of police, 12 district superintendents of police (DSPs), 37 inspectors, 88 sub-inspectors and over 100 constables. The post of the DIG is however, lying vacant.

The DSPs and inspectors posted with the EOU were recently sent to the CBI training centre at Ghaziabad for professional training. “For the smooth functioning, the EOU will be set up at district-levels also. The team members will be imparted separate training to tackle cases of financial crime and it needs a high-tech investigation to solve such matters,” the DGP said.

The EOU at the police headquarters has been assigned to deal with financial cases only. So far three fresh cases have been lodged and investigation launched by the officials concerned. The members of the EOU carried out simultaneous raids on the residential premises of 17 public servants, including three block development officers on March 13 this year.

The teams spread across seven districts, including Patna, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur and Katihar stumbled upon important documents related to embezzlement of fund of Indira Awas Yojana worth Rs 2 crore between 2006 and 2011.