Whether the Ludhiana police have been able to safeguard the public or not is debatable but the police force has failed to guard themselves from various ailments.

This was proved by medical tests conducted by a private hospital in the city which revealed that a majority of Ludhiana policemen, especially the lower-rung personnel, are suffering from one ailment or the other.

The Pulmonary Functioning Tests (PFT) have found that police personnel are suffering from eye problems, throat infection, respiratory discomfort, skin diseases, impaired hearing, chest disease, excessive carboxyhaemoglobin and annoyance with noise. Nearly 240 personnel of the Ludhiana traffic police had undergone the check up at the SPS Apollo hospital recently.

Earlier in April this year, of a total of 2,324 police personnel medically examined during an annual medical check-up camp, over 1,700 cops were found to be unfit under the Lever Functioning Test (LFT), a problem which normally generates various other health problems such as jaundice, Hepatitis A, B and C.

Hypertension too has taken its toll on the health of the city cops. According to the reports of the annual medical check up, over 1,600 police personnel were found to be suffering from hypertension. Besides, nearly 650 cops were found to be suffering from high cholesterol. Nearly 350 have excess uric acid and nearly 240 having abnormal blood sugar levels.

Says SSP RK Jaiswal: "Stress is taking its toll on the health of the police department. Ours is not an eight-hour but a 24-hour job. Many times policemen do not get time to eat meals at fixed hours. You can well imagine the situation of lower-rung employees."

About the health problems being faced by the Ludhiana cops, SSP Jaiswal said, "We are soon going to provide full health insurance cover for all our employees. In case a cop needs specialised medical treatment, the police department will bear the cost."

He further said, "We have created a medical-aid fund for our employees. A committee has been formed to spend this fund for the betterment of the health of all our employees. Besides, we have tied up with the DMC hospital for the annual medical check up of all our personnel. If any of our employees is found suffering from serious diseases and needs specialised treatment, he can avail himself of the facility at the hospital."

Recently, the Punjab DGP NPS Aulakh, at a function at Gurdaspur, had also admitted that a number of the Punjab police personnel were facing health problems due to shortage of manpower and being overworked.