J&K Police including its various wings has rendered exceptionally meritorious service to the State and the nation. The way they have met the challenge of terrorists with incredible grit and determination will be written in letters of gold in any police history in the world.
Past two decades and half have been a long period of test of their patience, forbearance and dedication to the cause of nationalism for our police forces. It is a long and tough task to train a policeman how he is expected to perform his duties in extraordinary situations. Agitated mobs make the police their target. Angry and frustrated students make the police their easy target and hurl stones and rubble at them many times causing serious or fatal injury to police personnel. In short they are performing their duty at great risk to their lives.
Keeping all this background in mind the Union Home Ministry has been very generous to the State Government by making adequate allocations for bringing in drastic reforms in the Police Department. At the time of sanctioning the grants, the Home Ministry conveys specific instructions on what and how these grants are to be utilized. It is the duty and responsibility of the State Government to utilize the funds properly and judiciously. But it is sad to state that the Central allocations have not been used by the NC-Congress alliance during its six years of tenure in office. No one will believe that many important and strategic police posts and police stations go without toilet and water. How the staff manages that is a mystery. According to available information 48 Police Posts and 14 Police Stations are without toilet facility, while as 49 Police Posts and 23 Police Stations are lacking drinking water facility, which otherwise is basic amenity for the survival of human beings.
We have the country-wide mission of providing toilets and drinking water to each home in the rural population. The Government sanctions large amounts of money for sanitary requirements. The police are expected to be the guardians of human rights and a source of bringing comforts to civilian population. But if the very watchdog of human rights is deprived of basic facilities like toilet and water, we are sorry to say that we will be culpable for violation of human rights of our police personnel. One fails to understand how can the personnel deployed at various stations and posts perform their duty efficiently when neither pure drinking water nor clean toilet is available to them.
In these columns we have so often written about the need for modernization of police force of the State. We strongly argued in favour of modernization because our police force is called upon to perform in extraordinary difficult conditions. How can this force deliver if it is not modernized in all available aspects? The Union Home Ministry categorically stated that it wants modernization of J&K Police on priority and made allocations in this behalf. In the overall modernization scheme enhancement of emoluments of police men and officers was also envisaged. There were many clear and unambiguous instructions about dos and don’ts for modernization of the police. But a close examination will show that modernization of police remained nothing but a slogan which the Governments orchestrated from time to time only to mislead the Home Ministry. Can we call it modernization when dozens of police stations and posts remain without the basic needs of life? In particular, physical and environmental conditions of police posts and stations in far flung rural areas are worse. Essentially, it is the job of senior police officers to ensure that working and hygienic conditions of police posts and stations are highly satisfactory.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel