The government said yesterday it was highly unjust of the opposition to criticise the Lm45 allowance to policemen who do office work at the headquarters and the districts, and those who work in the skills section.

This measure was not discriminatory in any way because all the other policemen already have a Lm45 allowance, or work on Sundays and feast days, so getting special rates of pay for that work. The police who work in the skills section were getting no allowance.

As a result of this reform 211 policemen will get an income improvement of Lm11 a week as from 1 January, and the difference between what they and their colleagues earn will be lessened.

And recently, the government added, in line with a request by the Police Association, the government had accepted that no days off would ever be deducted from the leave due to them. The result was that over a year, the police had acquired 2,380 days of leave which previously used to be denied them.