MANDYA: More than one-and-a-half years after the orderly system was scrapped in the state's police force, Mandya SP G Radhika is at the centre of a controversy involving no less than 18 police personnel doing odd jobs at her official bungalow.Videos show police personnel watering the garden, washing clothes and accompanying family members on daily errands.The SP dismissed the allegations, saying the police personnel were doing the chores "voluntarily". She said, "I categorically deny that I have engaged those police personnel in menial works at my official residence. They are just servicing the official residence of a senior police officer and they would usually do that voluntarily."The previous Siddaramaiah government had scrapped the orderly system, a legacy of the colonial British era, in 2016. At the time, over 3,000 personnel from the reserved forces were working as orderlies in the state.Sources said 18 police personnel, including ASI-rank officers, were doing menial jobs at the Mandya SP's residence. Besides the chores mentioned above, at least three police drivers were engaged in ferrying family members around, they said.Several videos surfaced of police personnel in plainclothes performing the chores or waiting outside her official residence. The videos were reportedly shot by the disgruntled police personnel themselves.When contacted, Radhika told TOI that she had not engaged the police personnel. "Every police personnel is trained to render voluntary services. Also, there is no rule that only lower rung police personnel should do those services. The personnel seen in the videos are neither engaged by me to do menial works nor am I enforcing the orderly system."A senior police officer said an SP could have up to three police personnel at home for assistance. "Radhika lives in a British-era bungalow that has a huge garden. The government itself employs gardeners and other staff. Having more than a dozen orderlies is next to impossible," the officer said.

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