Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 26: Putting the Jammu District Police in the dock over numerous shortcomings ranging from poor infrastructure to the inadequate manpower, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has found law and order situation in the district as alarming with crime rate on the increasing trend and response time to reach the crime spot at its lowest ebb.
Keeping in view the growing challenges to internal security particularly in the wake of militancy, the Union Government launched Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Modernization of Police Force” to revamp the police force by providing basic infrastructure like Police Stations, Police Posts, barracks and housing (Upper Subordinates Quarters and Lower Subordinate Quarters) in accordance with the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) norms.
However, the CAG in its latest report has found that the police infrastructure in Jammu district was not as per BPR&D norms and there was huge shortage of housing infrastructure in the district.
Against the requirement of 730, the availability of Upper Subordinates Quarters and Lower Subordinate Quarters was just 168, which constitute only 23 per cent, at the end of March 2011, the report said, adding as on March 31, 2011, against the requirement of 25 Police Stations there were only 20 in the district. Similarly, there were 35 Police Posts against the requirement of 47. The number of barracks was 68 against the requirement of 72.
Though one of the major thrust areas under Modernization of Police Force was to increase the mobility of district police to face effectively the challenges to internal security by reducing response time yet overall deficiency of vehicles in the district was 239 (57 per cent), the report said, adding against the requirement of 422 vehicles, there were only 183 with the Jammu District Police.
Stating that this deficiency was bound to effect the functioning of the police personnel, the report said, “the non-availability of sufficient vehicles in vital police stations and posts indicates non-prioritization of distribution of available vehicles amongst the basic policing units thereby adversely impacting their mobility which is substantiated by the response time of various police stations”, adding “the response time of the police stations was high between five and 205 minutes from the occurrence of an incident”.
Notwithstanding BPR&D norms, which lay emphasis on raising manpower in proportion to the increase in population, the shortage of constables—the basic policing ingredient of the department increased from 92 in March 2006 to 558 in March 2011, the report said, adding “this shows a dismal position of the department in having adequate staff to meet the growing challenges despite the fact that High Powered Committee of Ministry of Home Affairs had also stressed the need for filling up vacancies on priority basis”.
“While the crime rate in the district was on the increasing trend and increased to 4158 during 2011 from 3516 during 2007, the investigation in only 40 to 76 per cent of reported crime cases had been completed”, the report said.
During the course of visit to some police stations, the CAG found that funds to meet the expenses of diet of persons detained in the police stations had not been made available to in-charge police stations as a result of which the incharge of police stations had to meet such expenses from their own pockets. “This clearly indicates that no proper monitoring system had been evolved by the department to take care of these problems”, the CAG pointed out.
The CAG has drawn a conclusion that police infrastructure in terms of police stations, police posts, lower and upper subordinate quarters was inadequate to meet the requirement of the department and the mobility of the police stations was poor which affected response time of the personnel to reach the crime spot immediately. “The crime cases pending investigation had increased substantially from 1107 cases in the year 2007 to 4158 cases in the year 2011 as a result of which law and order situation in the Jammu district has become alarming”, the CAG said and recommended that adequate infrastructure should be ensured to make policing efficient.
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