STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Police is a unique blend of myth and truth. Its slogan ‘Jammu and Kashmir Police at your service’ is a classic example of myth while the truth is that it will surely fail you when in distress. If in doubt, call 100 and get shock of the life on finding the other side ringing without anybody picking or computer broadcasting you to be in queue. And, if picked accidently, the hoarse voice, akin to boozers, will greet you with a huge snub. In urge of help, the caller gets humiliated. The discourteous call attendees cannot instill sense of confidence, least security, among the scared people, who reach out to police in sheer desperation.
Strange but true! Even after spending whopping funds over the so-called modernization and despite making efforts to use online forums to ensure connectivity with people, the emergency number -100 remains inaccessible to many in distress.
When asked about truants being played by police emergency service, Inspector General Police Jammu S D S Jamwal acknowledged the complaints and went on quickly saying, “The computers are not working properly”. So nice of frank admission! But is it a problem of the caller, who gets assistance after reaching out to the emergency number following frantic efforts only when the crime is committed and criminals are on run?
What actually ails the police, which fails it to keep its house in order? If the police could not modernize the organisation with whopping Rs 547 crores allocated in seven years till March 2017, it can never brace up to meet multiple challenges in terror infested Jammu and Kashmir. “In years 2010-11 and 2011-12, an amount of Rs 148.25 crore and Rs 109.73 crore, respectively, was given to the state government, whereas in the year 2015-16 and 2016-17, it received only Rs 35.88 crore and 24.63 crore, respectively,” according to a RTI reply. Where has all this money gone? If such whopping funds cannot make the most glorified emergency service of 100 to work then what remains the basis for seeking tax-payers hard earned money as central assistance? The citizens are not paying for being humiliated or left in lurch at the hour of need. They need assistance and Jammu Police has miserably failed in delivering this.
Obviously, the police may flaunt about procurement of bullet-proof gypsies, as part of modernization but yet the question arises about reaching out for assistance, if there is no credible and responsive wherewithal. The idea behind modernization was to keep a vigil on unwanted persons, criminals, robbers, road Romeos, chain snatchers and entire lot of bad elements but can it be achieved with ‘inaccessible’ police. Who will keep vigil on the police to find out why its personnel let down the citizens at the hour of distress? Instead of modernizing the infrastructure, the police needs attitudinal back-up and only then even erratic computers will respond to SoS messages on emergency three digit number 100. The fundamental objectives of the police control rooms and mobile squads are the prevention of crime besides detection and punishment of offenders. This calls for an effective organizational mechanism. Work it out and see 100 will denote help and not humiliation!
