8,000 cops in Pune may not get June salary

Even though the Unique Identification Number (UID) Aadhar card is mandatory for receiving the monthly salary, as many as 8,000 policemen out of a total strength of 8,500 including top brass police officers of the city police do not have the card.

The top brass of the city police has now issued an order asking policemen to enrol for the UID card by the end of the month and have warned them of stringent action if they fail to do so.

Additional commissioner of police (administration) Abdur Rehman told dna, “We have made Aadhar card mandatory for policemen. They have to enrol for it by the month-end. We will take stringent action against those who fail to do so. The policemen would face problems in getting their salaries.”

To make the process easier for the policemen, who would otherwise have to wait for long hours in serpentine queues to enrol, the top brass has decided to start UID centres at the Pune police commissionerate headquarters, at Swargate and Pimpri.

The documents will be first verified against the originals and stamped by the officer on duty. The next stage involves scanning of the iris and fingerprints, which is then stored on a computer along with the digital photograph. The applicants will be provided a receipt and receive the card at their postal address after 60 to 90 days.

Many officers of the rank of additional commissioner of police, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), assistant commissioner of police (ACP) and police inspector haven’t enrolled for their UID cards.

Assistant sub inspector Sudam Kolekar of the traffic department told dna, “My daughter explained to me the importance of the UID card. She herself collected my documents and came with me for the card. I realised the value of the card when I went to open a new bank account. At that time, I was not required to submit any more documents.”