Following failure of talks with the state government over their demands, around 60,000 havildars, constables and sepoys of Odisha Police and state Special Armed Police today performed their duties wearing black badges.
The symbolic protest, which began from 6 AM today, will continue till 6 PM on Thursday.
"If no steps were taken by the government to fulfill the six-point charter of demands within 36 hours, we will have to resort to indefinite cease work from 6 AM on Friday," Kishore Kumar Mohanty, General Secretary of the Confederation of the lower-ranked policemen, said.
Mohanty said if any law and order situation happened in the state during their cease work stir, the state will be held responsible for it.
Explaining their demands, Mohanty said they have been pleading with the BJD government for removal of anomalies in their grade pay, ever since the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations have been accepted by the state government.
Among others, the Confederation is demanding for daily ration money instead of the current practice of special diet allowance, the 13th month salary of the year with full DA, appointment of Class IV employees and regular employees instead of contractual employees in Odisha police and OSAP.
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Meanwhile, a release issued by the Hyderabad Police tonight mentioned that no permission has been granted for the proposed rally or public meeting by Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC).
It appealed to all the people including students, not to come to Indira Park here.
"Since prohibitory orders are in place, legal action will be taken in case of any violation," mentions the release, adding, "It will affect your (students) future and job prospects."
Police said on February 1, G Venkat Reddy, official spokesperson of Telangana JAC, had applied for permission to take out a 'protest rally to demand employment' from Sundaraiah Vignan Kendram to Indira Park to be followed by a 'public meeting' at Dharna Chowk for February 22 with a gathering of 1000-1500 unemployed youth.
Subsequently, when police enquired about the exact participants, Reddy said that the number is likely to increase from the earlier estimate. TJAC, meanwhile, approached the High Court and filed a writ petition seeking permission for the rally and public meeting.
The High Court after hearing both the parties instructed police to take a decision, the release said.
Police then suggested six alternative places to the petitioner to conduct the meeting. However, the petitioner (TJAC) did not agree to shift the place of meeting and sought permission to hold meeting in Osmania University campus, though police once again suggested alternative place to him.
Since the petitioner was not ready to shift the place the High Court today suggested to hold the meeting at Nagole and started dictating judgment and that time, the petitioner withdrew the writ petition, police added.
The Telangana Government had yesterday informed the High Court that it had denied permission for a protest rally by TJAC because extremist organisations and persons had infiltrated the group.
