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The Prime Minister has called upon the police force not to succumb to unwarranted interference in their professional work. Addressing the one-day National Conference of Superintendents of Police(SPs) here today, Dr. Manmohan Singh said that adherence to professional codes of conduct is important, necessary and possible. Calling upon the police to change itself from a feudal force to a democratic service at all levels, the Prime Minister said that police needs to be seen as a friend of the citizen. People must have confidence in their professionalism, honesty, integrity and efficiency. He called for involving the police in developmental work in insurgency-prone areas. Dr. Manmohan Singh said that time has come to integrate policing into the country’s planning for development. He suggested a 5-year or longer-term perspective plan to take care of various police-related issues. Drawing attention to the problems faced by constables, Dr. Manmohan Singh said that they constitute about 80% of the police force. Attention should be paid to their housing, training and other needs. On frequent and arbitrary transfer of police officials, the Prime Minister said that this has demoralizing effect on them. He vowed to pursue the matter with the State Governments. Dr. Manmohan Singh suggested the establishment of an independent police performance board to enable the Government to monitor and assess police performance in an objective manner. He also suggested setting up of an independent oversight mechanism to handle complaints against police misconduct.
Earlier, in his address, the Home Minister, Shri Shivraj Patil called upon the police force to regularly audit its preparedness to meet the new challenges facing the nation. He said that the situation in Jammu &Kashmir and the north-eastern States has shown signs of improvement, but there are areas affected by Naxal violence in several states. The threat of terrorism has also spread to many more states. Fake currency rackets, cyber crimes and other economic crimes are also posing new threats. The Home Minister emphasized the need to critically examine the Indian Police Act, 1861 to see whether it is meeting the requirement of the present day policing and whether there is a need for a new Police Act. The Home Minister said that in modern democracies, respecting human rights is as important as maintaining peace and order. At times, the police transgresses the boundaries of its authority, resulting in serious damage to its image. A few incidents of this kind undo the good work done by the majority of the force. The Home Minister informed the Conference of the Government’s policy to increase the number of women in the police force to at least 10 per cent in the next few years. He called upon the police force to strengthen and activate their intelligence wings and also maintain rapport with the central and state intelligence organisations.
The participants at the conference identified some common problems like lack of infrastructure for police stations, long duty hours of police leading to stress, application of technological aids during investigations and outdated laws and procedures. Their suggestions included strengthening of intelligence gathering at the police station level, separation of staff for law and order and for crime investigation duties at the police station level, outsourcing of non-core police functions like service of summons to reduce workload, giving statutory powers to constables for investigation of offences, empowering panchayats to dispose off petty crimes, institutionalizing involvement of citizens committees and district level complaint boards and sensitization of media towards the problems faced by the police.
On the directions of the Prime Minister, the National Conference of SPs was organized for the first time. Core issues of the Conference included improvement in delivery of police service to the people, national security challenges before the police, new challenges to policing in the context of technological advancements and economic development, rural policing and village police set up, problems of urban and metropolitan policing, criminal justice reforms, community participation in policing and recruitment, and training and human resource development in the police.
Among others, the Conference was attended by the Minister for External Affairs, Shri Natwar Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Shri Suresh Pachauri and the Ministers of State for Home, S/Sh. Manikrao Gavit, S. Regupathy and Sriprakash Jaiswal.
OK/AD/MM
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