Citizens’ Action Forum (# 372/1, M K Puttalingaiah Road, Padmanabhanagar, Bangalore-560070) cordially invites you to the 1ST LECTURE of the PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES
on Saturday the 9th February 2013 at 4.15 PM at Dr. Arakeri Hall, Institute of Agricultural Technologists, Queens Road, Bangalore, by
Sri S T Ramesh, Former Director General of Police, Karnataka on POLICE REFORMS
Retd. Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka, Dr. A. Ravindra, IAS (Retd) will preside over the function
Sri. S. Suresh Kumar, Hon’ble Minister for Law & Parliamentary Affairs will be the Chief Guest.
A L L A R E W E L C O M E
Note (added by me):
Based on the Soli Sorabjee Committee recommendations, many states including Karnataka, have instituted the Police Accountability Authority, Police Establishment Board, etc, essentially to distance the police as much as needed from the political establishment. But, these are repeatedly being by-passed (as seen here), weakening them, as well as demoralising of the entire force, in the process.
There is a lot more to the Committee recommendations, and implementation of all of them in toto, is the urgent need of the day.
Muralidhar Rao
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my take-aways from the meet
My take-aways from the meet are:
1) I had earlier quoted from Dr S T Ramesh's article here. The slide presentation more or less covered what was stated in the article, apart from a bit of history.
2) The budget allocation for policing accounts for just a meagre 2.3% of the whole, which is just about enough to cover the day-to-day expenses, leaving very little for any developmental activity. During the question & answer session, I raised this point with Dr Ravindra (former Chief Secretary, and presently advisor to the CM), the Chief Guest, and asked him if the government shouldn't be making bigger allocations to this department, where alone the scope for outsourcing/ privatisation is limited, by cutting down on allocations to many other sectors, which could benefit from outsourcing/ privatisation.
I didn't get a specific answer. Well, perhaps he is not quite in a position give an answer, even with being an advisor to the CM. Well, one can give out advise; but, it needs to be taken, right? Even the PMs appoint all kinds of highly qualified people as advisors - earlier you had Mr Kaushik Basu, now it's Mr Raghuram Rajan. The language they speak often appears at variance with governmental actions. As such, one wonders as to how effective these advisors are. The question that simultaneously arises is if the government is not prepared to take their advise, why are they appointing them in the first place, at tax payers' expense. Of course, all that is a separate debate, I guess.
some movement
With long absence from their families leading to frustration among constables, the state government plans to first build accommodation for police personnel and then open new police stations. This is the model being followed by the Fire Services and Prisons Departments, and the Central Reserve Police Force. - - - - Lack of communication between the lower and the senior rank officers and increased burden due to staff shortage are also reasons for frustration, he said. Hence, plans are afoot to introduce a three-shift system. - - - availability of good schools for their children; examining the mental and physical condition of constables and head constables; compulsory weekly offs by giving instructions to officers to sanction leave impartially; government benefits to reach the staff on time. - - - “We are also planning to provide an alternative weapon to police personnel on sentry duties instead of the existing .303 rifles,” Mr Ashok said.
For trhe full report in the New Indian Express, click here.
OK, finally, something seems to be happening atleast - long way to go still, though.