Ranchi, June 21: A force made up of children will look after the problems faced by relatives of slain policemen.
Home minister Sudesh Mahto today recruited 17 ?Bal Police?, among them 16 boys and a girl, in the police department for redressal of the problems of kin of slain policemen.
Those appointed as ?Bal Police? were in the age group of 12 to 18 and are students of Classes V to X in different schools. All of them are children of police personnel who have died in harness since 2001.
The Bal Police will get half the salary of a constable.
They will have to attend school regularly and do simple work in the office of the police superintendents.
They will be inducted in the police team as constables as soon as they attain the age of 19.
Saurav Kumar (12), a student of Class V in Munger Primary School, was the youngest to get the appointment letter.
He had come with her mother Rinku Devi to receive his appointment letter from the home minister. The only girl who was appointed in the force is Rinki Murmu (13).
Vikas Kumar (13), a student of Class IX at Cambridge School in Tatisilwai, also got the appointment letter.
Among the others were Raja Ran Vijay Singh, Anand Minz, Uttam Kumar, Vikas Kumar Hemrome, Pradeep Tiyu, Manjay Kumar, Manish Oraon, Abhiskeh Kumar, Ravindra Kumar Soren, Suraj Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Vikash Kumar, Rajeev Ranjan Kumar, Nitesh Kumar and Deepka Paswan.
Though appointment of Bal Police is not a new concept, visitors were amazed finding appointment letters in the hands of minors.
?How can these children work? They were too young to be appointed as police personnel. How can they handle law and order problems while on duty? Asked one visitor.
Additional director-general of police (modernisation) Niyaz Ahmed, Railway inspector-general Ashok Kumar Sinha, Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) deputy inspector general Rezi Dungdung and JAP-1 commandant Arun Oroan were found informing people about the concept of Bal Police.
?This is not a new concept. In central paramilitary forces such appointments are common. Bal Police are assigned the simple job in the offices of police superintendents. They are assigned jobs after school hour. Generally, police officers do not deal strictly with them and give them proper opportunity to grow up and become responsible citizens,? said an officer.
