Panaji, March 7 Goa Director General of Police Indra Dev Shukla on Monday downplayed opposition parties' allegations of harassment of 400 Goa Police personnel, who are being ferried from Uttar Pradesh to Goa a journey of nearly 1,200 kms by bus for casting of votes through postal ballot.
Talking to reporters, he said that while the road journey across the vast distance from Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi to Goa was difficult, personnel serving in uniformed forces should take such hardships in their stride.
"I sympathise with them because to embark on such a journey by bus is difficult, but the life of a policeman is not so easy... In a year, if we have to undertake such (arduous) duty for one day, two days, ten days, our jawans are ready.
"I was posted (to Goa) from Mizoram. My officers (there) worked in the midst of bullets flying. We have also made no distinction between night and day. Sometimes we got food to eat, sometimes we did not. Sometimes, we stayed in a bunker. Police life is not so easy. Like civil we cannot expect (comfort)," Shukla said.
Two opposition parties, the Congress and Goa Forward had accused the BJP-led administration of harassing the 400-odd India Reserve Battalion (IRB) police personnel posted in Uttar Pradesh, for poll purposes, and trying to get them to skip voting through postal ballot, through duress by making them take a road journey from UP to Goa by public transport buses.
Both parties had complained to the Election Commission and slammed the state government machinery for not getting them back to Goa via train.
Shukla also acknowledged that a train ride for his police personnel would have been less cumbersome, but added that arrangements for train travel could not be carried out in time.
"We should have made arrangements by train, but we did not get a train... The programme was so tight that other forms of travel arrangements could not be made," he said.
"I accept it is an ordeal, but the job of a policeman is not such where you can get a cushion every time. This is a 24x7 job... Until we do not do hard postings... Arunachal, Mizoram, Nagaland, in terrorist areas, we do not get promoted. Promotions amongst many of us have stalled because of this," he also said.
The deadline for casting votes through postal ballots ends on March 9, a day before counting of votes polled in the February 14 polls is undertaken.
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