The Hindu : New Delhi News : Time to address grievances of policemen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 26, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Time to address grievances of policemen

Devesh K. Pandey

THE SUICIDE committed by a Delhi Traffic Police sub-inspector this past month will soon be forgotten. While a vigilance enquiry into the allegations made by his family -- that he ended his life because of undue demands from his senior officer -- is still under way, many in the force say the system does have a dark underbelly.

Most police personnel agree that corruption in the force is so rampant that if the vigilance and anti-corruption agencies decide to put each and every "dirty" cop behind bars, the force would be cut to almost 30 per cent of its current strength. And most of those caught would be lower subordinates as they form the biggest chunk of the force.

While senior police officers might find it amusing, their juniors -- especially investigating officers -- are of the view that sheer mismanagement is often responsible for them indulging in corrupt practices.

In fact, there is system of doling out monetary rewards to personnel for "good work" which in theory should encourage healthy competition among police personnel when it comes to investigation or catching notorious criminals, and even make up for their low salaries. The arrangement for refund of money spent during probe is also in place.

While the system of reward and refund tries to ensure that policemen remain satisfied, at least monetarily, it is sad to note that such an arrangement is not proving to be that effective. The most common grievance is that the policemen seldom get refunds on time. Ironically, the form that they fill to get refunds states that money must be disbursed within 15 days. As per the rule, applications for refunds up to Rs. 3,000 are cleared by the district Deputy Commissioner of Police, whereas amounts exceeding that require clearance from Police Headquarters.

But the process of disbursal has been made so cumbersome that often policemen desist from filing refund forms against expenses like food for suspects, short-distance travel and other activities. The fact is that each refund application involves loads of paper work and cross-checking and in most cases clarifications are sought about the authenticity of bills.

"If you are lucky enough, you will get the refund within a couple of months, but it can take almost an year and even more if the departments concerned start raising questions over the claim," says a police officer.

The problem gets even more aggravated when senior police officers want better results in a short time in a situation where the personnel are not even provided vehicles for raids, which is a basic minimum requirement.

In fact, corruption has come to be readily accepted -- so much so that senior police officers expect the subordinates to be capable enough to "manage their own resources". They are expected to "arrange" vehicles for raids, make payments for the bills of their mobile phones and pay off other "trivial" expenses.

But at the end of the day, the fact remains that after several years of service, a head constable gets only about Rs. 8,000, an assistant sub-inspector about Rs. 10,000 and a sub-inspector about Rs. 12,000 as salary. They have to take care of their families and provide good education and health care to their children within the income. Obviously, they would have little left from it to be able to "arrange for their resources also".

While many succumb to the pressures, there is also an odd case where a personnel decides to leave the "system" altogether.

A few years ago, a sub-inspector resigned from the service after he found that the system made him stoop low in order to survive.

For their part, most senior police officers blame their subordinates for all the "ills" plaguing the force. However, if they really want their personnel to work with utmost honesty, then they will have to not only listen to their grievances but also address them within a time frame.

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