The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Officials hail setting up of police commission

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 26, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Officials hail setting up of police commission

K.T.Sangameswaran

It will recommend measures to redress grievances of personnel

CHENNAI: One more poll promise of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is on the way to implementation with the State Government deciding to constitute the Third Police Commission to redress the grievances of policemen and rejuvenate the department.

Welcoming the announcement, police officers say much depends on the terms of reference of the proposed commission and the implementation of its recommendations. The implementation of the recommendations of the first and second commissions, they say, has certainly improved the force's operational efficiency.

The DMK government appointed the two police commissions in the past: the first, under the chairmanship of R.A.Gopalasamy, a retired ICS officer, in 1969; and the second, under P. Sabanayagam, a retired Chief Secretary, in 1989. According to official statistics, 115 of the 133 recommendations of the Gopalasamy Commission and 87 of the 112 recommendations of the Sabanayagam Commission have been implemented.

Challenges

The formation of the third commission comes at a time when the State's population has shot up, and the challenges before the police have increased. Though the State has not witnessed any major communal violence for the last eight years, the blasts on trains at Erode and Tiruchi in 1997 and the serial explosions in Coimbatore the next year serve as grim reminders of religious fundamentalism, traces of which can not be ruled out. Along with this is the issue of human rights of the accused. To handle these, a proper orientation of the personnel and officers is required.

"How best to improve police efficiency, weaponry and collection of intelligence to respond to the latest challenges is an important poser to the commission," says an Additional Director-General of Police. Another matter the commission should look into is increasing the number of personnel corresponding to the duties. The present police-population ratio is 1:778. The strength of the force is 88,000, as against the sanctioned strength of 95,000, which itself does not seem to be adequate, says an Inspector-General of Police. Personnel should be recruited regularly in anticipation of vacancies.

A review of special units is necessary to ensure the services of the personnel are fully and properly utilised. With the mainstreaming of women personnel and officers, their problems should be looked into.

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