Concerned about the work strain on personnel, the traffic police chief plans to put those who are transferred from other divisions through a proper health check-up.
According to sources, it was found recently that many of those who had been posted in the traffic department since 2011 were suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and hypertension.
"Traffic policemen have to stand for eight hours at a stretch, amid the smoke of vehicles. If personnel who are transferred to this department suffer some ailment, there is little scope for them to undertake hard work," a traffic police official said.
Dr BK Upadhyay, the joint police commissioner (traffic), has written about this to Rakesh Maria, the police commissioner, seeking his permission to interview the transferees and have a health check for them.
The traffic department has a strength of 3,526 staff, 343 of them women who are young and have no ailments. Of the other 3,183 men, about 2,000 are new, young recruits and the rest are over 35 years old. It is the older men who suffer ailments, the sources said.
"Some of those transferred to the traffic department recently have been found to be suffering from slipped disc, partial paralysis, tuberculosis, even cancer, and they are on medication. It would be unfair and inhuman to expect them to work like those who do not have these ailments," the official said.
The official gave an example of a policeman who was transferred from the local arms division to the traffic department and was found to suffer from hypertension and diabetes. Also, he had requested his seniors repeatedly not to transfer him to the traffic division.
The official explained that if the traffic chief's request was okayed by the police commissioner, the traffic division would take personnel only on merit.
When contacted, Upadhyay said, "We conduct regular health camps for our police officers and men to check if they are suffering from any ailments. We have also started yoga classes for heart patients and those suffering from hypertension and high blood pressure."
Health priority
In the past three years a few hundred policemen have been transferred to the traffic police department and many of them have been found to be suffering from various ailments.
Hypertension: 50
High blood pressure: 47
Diabetes: 38
Slipped disc: 2
Cancer: 2
Tuberculosis: 6
Paralysis: 1
Brain tumor: 2
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