R K SINHA
It is unfortunate and sad to note that in the recent past decades, it has become a practice to ignore and forget those policemen and officers who die while performing their duty. Their martyrdom is not honoured and they are not remembered as if their death is no death.
If we take just one year- September 2015 to August 2016, some 473 policemen laid their lives while performing duty. That means more than one policeman dies on duty every day in our country.
It is a matter of shame that some people take out candle march when terrorists are killed but seldom people come forward to wipe the tears of those children who lost their father for the cause of the nation.
It is also disturbing that the fear of khakhi uniform is not there in the society these days. Some people prefer to take law into their hands and lynch accused in public view. The other day in the capital, a video of a Nigerian being tied in a pole and being thrashed by public got viral. The incident took place at Malviya Nagar in New Delhi. The Nigerian youth was suspected of stealing something from a house and tried to run away. The youth was drunk. Before Police could nab him, the public thrashed him. It was heart rendering act of cruelty.
There was another incident of mob frenzy in Kharkhand some time back when people killed two persons in two different incidents just on the suspicion that the victims were child lifters. For a moment even if we presume that the victims were child lifters, what right the public had in kiiling them. What is the use of Police then in our system?
According to National Crime Bureau report in 2015 died while on duty. Of this 412 policemen died in Uttar Pradesh alone that comes to 48.8 per cent. In Maharashtra, 95 polocemen laid their lives, while in Punjab and Tamil Nadu 64 policemen died, In Gujrat, 55 Policemen were martyred while in Rajsthan the figure was 52. Of those martyred, 427 were constables, 178 were head constables and 68 were assistant sub-incpectors.
The fact that criminals and gangsters are now targeting police warns us of raising our police force under new training system to meet this challenge. Also, there appears to be serious lapses and shortcomings in the entire system of policing. Sometime back, criminals in drunken condition had beaten up a constable in Uttar Pradesh who survived with serious injuries.
The Police force works under pressure. Take the case of Delhi Police, in August last, four policemen killed themselves with their service revolver. Those who committed suicide allegedly accused their seniors for abetting suicide. Pramod Kumar, 46 year old head constable posted in Cantonment Police Station in Delhi shot himself from service revolver on August 28 last. Devendra, 55 year old Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police posted at Jaitpur police station came out of thana and at some isolated place in Kalindi Kunj killed himself with service revolver. In the suicide note he had accused the Station House Officer of the thana of falsely implicating him in a case.
A 32 year old constable Parvinder posted at the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Police near Bangla Saheb Gurdwara killed himself with service pistol. It happened on August 3 last. These incidents of suicides are indications of kind of pressure under which policemen work.
In Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh there were caste riots involving Rajputs and Dalits resulting in widespread violence, Police vehicles were torched. The government is yet to fix responsibility for the riots.
There is need to immediately fill up all the vacant posts in police in all States. The duty hour should not be stretched beyond 8 hours a day. Honesty and efficiency should be rewarded and corruption and incompetency should be punished in Police force. The pending reports of reforms in Police force should be implemented. We hear a lot about modernization of Police in India, but on ground nothing is remarkable is noticeable. Mere purchasing fast and armoured vehicles for the police in the name of modernization is not enough. The workload should be reduced and the political leadership of States that control the police force should not interfere in the work of police whether it is controlling crime or investigating cases of crime. Those policemen and officers who are found guilty of shielding or protecting criminals should be summarily dismissed from service.
(The writer is Member of Rajya Sabha)
