Pune, Jan. 4 : If the observations made by a voluntary organisation in Pune are to be believed at least 70 per cent of the police personnel in Pune are vulnerable to heart ailments.

According to the Bhoi Foundation of the Pune city in Maharashtra, majority of the police personnel are prone to coronary diseases here. The observation is based on the medical tests conducted over 7,000 police personnel in the city during a health and fitness camp.

"In our earlier camp, we medically examined 220 policemen out of whom 44 patients were advised angiography. However, we could do angiography only on 11 patients. This is because of the ignorance of the police officials,” said Dr. Nityananda Thakur, a heart surgeon associated with Bhoi Foundation.

The camp was organised following an incident of two city policemen succumbing to heart ailment within a week recently.

“At this point of time, they might not be realising the severity of the problem, and hence, avoiding it. But few of them certainly form a high-risk group, and therefore, we are going to continue the programme," Thakur added.

Nearly 70 per cent police personnel positioned in different departments at different levels have heart related disorders, 40 per cent of the total policemen are diabetic and at least a dozen policemen die of heart attack annually, the report stated.

The reasons behind the problem faced by the city police are stated to be high-stress, extended duty hours (currently 12 hours), mental tension owing to harsh working conditions and being underpaid.

"The problem arises because the number of working hours is not fixed due to which there is rising mental pressure. Consequently, the body clock of the officials gets disturbed, there is no fixed time to eat, sleep and rest. They have tensions. A kind of fear holds the mind and hence the mental pressure just gets on them," said Rajendra Sonawane, Joint Commissioner of Police in Pune.

Police personnel above-40 age group underwent the medical examination conducted by a team of doctors at Jehangir Hospital in the city.

Besides, the doctors have also prescribed dietary plans for Pune Police. (ANI)