CM Assam Himanta Biswa Sharma Assures People friendly Police Station
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma directs all the Officer-in-charge (OC’s) of the police station from all over Assam with a vision to change the law and order situation of the state for the good. Earlier he had a meeting with the Superintendent of Police (SP’s) to adhere zero-tolerance policy on drugs and cow transit, and the police department was asked to play a belligerent role in implementing necessary action required for those involved. He asserted and urged the SPs to be more prudent because prudent policing is the backbone of good governance.
The aim is such that the police personnel should be more operative in dealing with the day-to-day policing with a timely investigation and being more professional, sharp, and for the people perceptive. The Chief Minister also emphasized immediate investigation, filing of charge sheets, issuing of post mortem reports, police verification reports for government jobs, and passports.
Filling of charge sheets is an intrinsic part and doing so would proffer to deliver timely justice. In many cases due to failure to file charge-sheet within the mandatory period of 90 days concerning cases which involve punishable offense with life imprisonment, death sentence or imprisonment for not less than 10 years, the accused gets bail which on the contrary indulges more crimes in the state.
Samples collected for a forensic investigation related to any case should be sent on time and reports must be available as soon as possible to the officer in charge so there is no delay in filing the charge sheet. Directives to send forensic samples outside the state will help reduce pendency and timely filling of charge sheets.
Statistics of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) show that the Assam Police have the lowest transport facility available. 1.74 vehicles per 100 police personnel against the national average of 9.70 vehicles per 100 police personnel. The chief minister further announced that the Officer-in-charge (OC’s) will be provided one vehicle each besides motorcycles for police stations in the remote areas which would increase mobility in those areas as Police stations are the basic units of organization of police departments in India.
Police stations are analogous to similar police units in all parts of the world and are seen as an essential range of investigative and preventive services to the people. The Mission of Overall Improvement of Thana for Responsive Image (MOITRI) was launched in 2016. An improvement over the years took place , 55 of the State’s 344 sanctioned police stations have been reconstructed over the past five years under the scheme. These reconstructed police stations are introduced with the facility of separate women and children cells, counseling rooms for juveniles and drug addicts, citizen-friendly reception, cyber rooms, and workstations.
The chief minister further gave clear and strict instructions to the OC’s to ensure that any crime against women should be dealt strictly with proper investigation. More women police officials in the department would encourage women in the state to come up and register their complaints without a second thought. If the number of women police personnel increase in the state then it will play a major role in upgrading women’s condition in the state.
The chief minister also added that the OC’s will have a two-year tenure in one police station and posting in the next police station will be decided by the respective SP’s or by the Director-General Police.
The idea of improving police station as a basic institution of governance and this initiative to change into a people-friendly police station would lead the state to become crime-free. This idea must develop in making an effort to change for the betterment. Such initiative will help in the improvement in public perception of the police and the police stations as institutions.
