Bhopal: The Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh has granted compulsory weekly offs to all police personnel. Earlier, cops were eligible only for annual leaves, which included sick leave, casual leaves and earned leaves.

Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police Rishi Kumar Shukla on Tuesday, January 1, announced that a weekly off is applicable for all personnel posted at police stations as well as in special armed force units deployed in the districts.

Chief Minister Kamal Nath tweeted, “We have completed the promise we made to the police personnel of giving them a weekly off. I congratulate the police force and hope they can spend due time with their families.”

Speaking about weekly offs to The Times of India, Sub-inspector Uma Shankar Mishra, said, “It feels awesome. I stayed with my family and even tried to finish as much pending work as I could. It’s the same feeling you get when you take a first vacation. I joined the force in 1981 and this is the first time that I got a weekly off.”

ASI Rakesh Sharma, another policeman posted at Bairagarh, who visited his ancestral home in Narsinghgarh with his two children, said, “This was the first off day so the children also took an off from school. It was a nice outing and it feels great.”

Sharma also added that all this wasn’t possible earlier as cops were required to reach their police station by 10am, and on most days could return home only around midnight.