NEW DELHI, May 8: Vice President M Venkiah Naidu on Sunday stressed on the need to upgrade skills of policemen to effectively tackle cybercrimes, economic offences and online frauds.
“Police reforms is a highly important and sensitive subject. We should now give a renewed thrust to implementing these reforms. The Centre and State must work with ‘team India’ spirit to usher in police reforms,” Naidu said after releasing the book titled ‘The Struggle for Police Reforms in India’, written by former IPS officer Prakash Singh, here.
The VP also highlighted issues that need to be addressed on a war footing, including filling up of the huge number of vacancies in police departments.
He called for strengthening the police force at the grassroots, who are the first responders in most cases. The behaviour of policemen towards the common man should be courteous and friendly, Naidu said as he called upon the senior police officers to lead by example in this regard.
Referring to the ’emergency’, the VP said,” It (police force) was used with impunity to suppress human rights and imprison thousands of people, including all the political opponents of the ruling dispensation.”
Subsequently, a National Police Commission was set up in 1977, which submitted reports with detailed multi-dimensional proposals for police reforms, he recalled.
The VP expressed happiness over a number of initiatives taken by the Centre for better policing, including a project to decriminalise minor offences and violations and the move for amending the Identification of the Prisoners Act, 1920, a legislation that was passed more than a 100 years ago.
Underlining the importance of policing to maintain peace and order in society,Naidu lauded the Government for giving high priority to greater use of technology in the day-to-day working of police.
Calling for reforms in all walks of public life, including politics, legislatures and judiciary, the VP stressed the need for speedy disposal of criminal cases against politicians and civil servants to retain people’s trust in the system. He also called for reforms in the anti-defection law to discourage unethical defections among elected representatives.
(UNI)
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