KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said there is "discrimination" in the state between IPS and West Bengal Police Service (WBPS) officers and equality must be ensured between them.
Addressing an award ceremony of Kolkata Police, Banerjee also lamented the lack of people from the state getting into the Indian Police Service (IPS).
"The IAS and IPS officers get everything during their appointment. The WBCS (West Bengal Civil Service) officers also have an association to look after their issues. But, the WBPS officers do not have anything like that. There is a lot of discrimination in the state police service," she said.
"If an IPS officer gets an allowance of Rs 2,000, then the officer of the state police service gets Rs 200. I have done it for the WBCS officers, but for the WBPS officers nothing has been done. I want this to be addressed. Today, I have sent a paper to the chief secretary, home secretary and the finance department," she added.
Banerjee said she hoped that more people from the state would qualify as IPS officers.
"Where are IPS officers from the soil of Bengal? The last time we had one from Bengal was Javed (Shamim)," she said.
The chief minister said the state government has recently decided to appoint 200 each WBCS and WBPS officers.
Banerjee also stressed on the need for having more women in the state police force, who can be assigned to different departments for tackling crimes.