In a significant move that may well change the basic functioning of the police in the country, the government has plans to segregate their law and order duties from active policing. What in effect this means is that the main functioning of the uniformed force at the police station level will be completely insulated from law and order arrangements.
This means that the staff in the police station will be used only for criminal activities in their respective areas like intensified patrolling in the area, improving response time to distress calls to the police, investigating and then chargesheeting important or heinous cases of crime.
Highly placed government sources said it will be made mandatory not to pull staff from the police stations for law and order arrangements like a demonstration, deployment along the route of a VIP, pressing policemen into VIP security, deploying policemen religious or festival gatherings.
For the law and order duties there would be dedicated battalions for exclusive use.
This, government sources said, would require major capacity building and the states will require centre’s support for raising additional battalions. The issue is expected to be discussed at length during the meeting of director generals of police and chief secretaries convened by the Union home ministry here next week. The meeting was called in wake of the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old student in Delhi.
“As some states have the capacity to clearly divide police functioning from law and order arrangements we will try and roll out the scheme in a phased manner. But since law and order is entirely a State subject they need to be on board with the centre,’’a senior MHA official said.
Sources said the proposal has been in the pipeline for sometime but it was never taken with a sense of urgency. The Centre will also seek a response from various states as to what assistance they would require to further enhance their capacity and implement the scheme.
Various commissions on police reforms have also strongly advocated a clear division between police functioning and law and order arrangements.
Even though the government has already appointed a committee to revisit the existing criminal laws against women the issue will be discussed at length during the DGPs meeting also.