State Director General of Police S S Khandwawala recently launched the welfare scheme called the Bandhutva Sahay Yojana (BSY). As per the unique scheme, all personnel in the state police irrespective of rank and nature of work will be contributing Rs 300 a year from their salaries to raise funds for the BSY. The contributions will be deposited in a savings bank account in the Gandhinagar branch of the State Bank of India (SBI).

The present state police force strength, including about 6,000 civilians, is about 62,000; the rest 56,000 are on uniformed duty.

However, there are nearly 13,000 vacancies, as the sanctioned strength is 75,000. Fresh recruitment for about 10,000 posts in the state police is expected to begin this year.

Nevertheless, according to estimates, the state police department will be raising Rs 1.86 crore under the BSY annually.

“The money will be used to provide immediate compensation of Rs 1 lakh to any policeman in the state killed during service under any circumstances,” said Amitabh Pathak, Additional Director General of Police (Administration). According to senior officers, the scheme will cover all natural and unnatural deaths, including suicides.

A seven-member administrative committee, which includes the DGP, two ADGPs, one city police commissioner, one range IG, one district SP and one SRPF commandant, has already been constituted to look into the disbursal of compensation money under the BSY.

“The compensation money will be paid in the form of an SBI bank cheque with 24 hours of the personnel’s death,” said a member of the BSY administrative committee.