Cuttack, April 25: The Odisha Police Association is irked over the state government's inaction on their demands, which was submitted through the director-general of police (DGP) on March 1.

The discontentment was expressed after progress on their 14-point charter of demands was reviewed at a meeting of the association's central executive on Sunday. The police body will take a decision on future course of action at its next meeting, which will be convened shortly.

"We have been waiting since the DGP forwarded our 14-point charter of demands to the government. But, there has been no tangible progress at the government level to act on our demands for more than a month now. The DGP on March 20 sought 15 days time to stop us from going for statewide agitation. If the situation persists, we will be forced to reconsider our wait and watch policy," association secretary Jyotiranjan Samantaray said today.

The association represents around 6,300 officers in the ranks of inspector, sub-inspector and assistant sub-inspector.<>The demands include filling up of vacancies, conveyance allowance of Rs 1,200, Rs 1,500 and Rs 1,800 per month for the ASIs, SIs and the inspectors, respectively, in place of motorcycle allowance of Rs 700 per month for them. The demands also include monthly mobile allowance of Rs 400 to every association member instead of Rs 500 and Rs 400 only to inspectors-in-charge or officers-in-charge of police stations in urban and rural areas, respectively. Besides, they also want "at least 15 per cent medical allowance on the basis of pay, along with monthly salary, without any provision for submission of bill".

At present, the state has 3,592 ASIs, 1,870 SIs and 842 inspectors. While 2,644 posts are vacant, 1,033 are in the rank of ASI, 1,434 in the rank of SI and 177 in the rank of inspector.

The police body has also demanded abolition of the recently introduced contractual appointment system in the organisation. "The demand has been made on the ground that the family members of a police personnel appointed on contractual system is deprived of ex gratia and other financial benefits in case of any mishap that results in his death," he said.

The association also expects the government to discontinue direct recruitment of police officers in the rank of deputy superintendent of police (DSP) in the Odisha Police Service (OPS) cadre on the ground that it will further scotch their promotion to that rank.

The association members are peeved as the government has already filled up more than 60 posts of DSPs without considering filling up of the vacant posts through promotion. They are worried as continuation of the process will culminate in stagnation in promotional avenue of police officers, who were recruited in the rank of sub-inspector.

Though the police manual says a sub-inspector should be promoted to inspector after seven years and DSP after 12 years, in the present circumstances, it is taking nearly 25 years, a member rued.

The state government had discontinued direct recruitment to the OPS cadre as DSPs in July 1977. In 2011, the government revived the direct recruitment process through examination by the Odisha Public Service Commission.