Kolkata, Apr 13 (IANS): A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Thursday, advised the West Bengal government to go for more regular recruitment in the police forces instead of appointing contractual civic volunteers.

"The main problem in the state is the lack of appointment of regular police personnel. That is the dependence of contractual appointments is increasing. The civic volunteers are playing the role of regular police personnel. There is no alternative to recruitment of regular police personnel in the ranks of sub- inspectors, assistant sub-inspector and constables," the single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha observed.

In this connection Justice Mantha also referred to the mysterious death of student- leader Anis Khan last year. "Unfortunately, on the night of death of Anis Khan, two civic volunteers went to his residence," he observed.

To recall, on February 19, 2022 Anis Khan was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his residence at Amta in Kolkata- adjacent Howrah district. His family alleged that he was killed by policemen in uniform. The state police started investigation forming SIT under the leadership of additional director general of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Gyanwant Singh.

The SIT members also arrested a home guard and civic volunteer in this connection.

Last month only, pushed by the Calcutta High Court, the West Bengal police directorate finally defined the role of civic volunteers in police-related activities and issued guidelines on this count.

Under the guidelines issued by the directorate on Saturday, civic volunteers will assist police personnel in traffic management and other related duties on the occasion of special festivals like Durga Puja, Christmas and New Year's Eve, among others. The court's direction came after frequent complaints of excesses by a section of the civic volunteers, who as per police manuals, do not enjoy the powers and jurisdiction of the regular police personnel.

The post of civic volunteers was created in Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police in 2012 -- a year after the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government came to power in West Bengal ending the 34-year long Left Front regime.

As per the records of the Chief Minister's office, currently there are 1,19,916 civic volunteers in the state.

The appointment for civic volunteers is purely on a contractual basis and they are entitled to a monthly payment of Rs 9,000 besides some additional benefits like insurance.

The opposition parties had been vocal against the appointment of civic volunteers since the beginning.

The contention of the opposition parties had been that these civic volunteers are principally the uniformed cadres of the ruling Trinamool.