83% sucess by police
The Inspector-General of Police, West Zone, K. Rajendran (second right), on Saturday giving away commendation certificates to the police officers who recorded more than 83 per cent recovery of stolen properties. DIGs of Police, M.N. Manjunatha (right) and N. Chenbahagaraman (third right) and the Nilgiris SP, Vidya D. Kulkarni (fourth left) are in the picture.The Inspector-General of Police, West Zone, K. Rajendran, on Saturday declared the seven districts and Salem City Police Commissionerate in West Zone as a “burking free zone”. As on date, no police station in the Zone should refuse to accept a complaint or register a First Information Report (FIR).He also gave away commendation certificates to the Deputy Superintendents of Police of 24 sub-divisions that recorded more than 83 per cent recovery of stolen properties out of the 41 sub-divisions in the Zone that had 277 police stations in seven districts and Salem City Police Commissionerate.He was talking to reporters after a meeting with the Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (DIG), N. Chenbahagaraman (Salem), M.N. Manjunatha (Coimbatore), Superintendents of Police (SP), P.C. Thenmozhi (Krishnagiri), H.M. Jayaram (Dharmapuri), N. Baskaran (Salem), John Nicholson (Namakkal), Sonal V. Misra (Erode), G. Karthikeyan (Coimbatore Rural), and Vidya D. Kulkarni (the Nilgiris).
The IG said that affluent people and those who had influence from power centres would be able to get their jobs done at police stations with ease, while discrimination often resulted in the harassment of the poor. Hence, accepting a complaint and registering an FIR was not ‘discretion’ but the ‘duty’ of a police officer. The inspector and sub-inspector should register an FIR on the complaint within one hour in the event of cognisable offences.If the officers at the station level failed, then the “responsibility, accountability and answerability” shifted to the SPs, DIGs and the IG. No complainant could be turned away saying that the inspector was not available or that the place was not under their jurisdiction. The initiative comes with retrospective effect and even old complaints could be referred to the police stations now for an FIR.
The IG said that as many as 42 departmental disciplinary actions had been initiated so far against officers for refusal to register FIRs on complaints relating to cognisable offence. The action included charge-memos to officers, besides suspension of two head constables. The first and second half of 2006 witnessed 73 per cent and 79 per cent detection respectively while it was 80.56 per cent in the first half of 2007. In 2007, as against the total of Rs. 9.98 crore property lost, the police had recovered Rs. 9.32 crore property, thus registering 93.45 per cent recovery rate, considered the highest as against the State average of 83 per cent. The spurt in recovery rate has proved a point that crime graph and recovery rates could never be cited as a reason by the officers refraining to register complaints. More than delay in investigation or failure to recover the property, refusal to register a complaint would be viewed seriously.
Performers would be rewarded but failure to comply with the instructions would lead to stringent punishment, he said. As against the average of 60,000 to 70,000 petitions a year, the Zone had received 53,411 petitions in the first half of the year. The increase in number of petitions indicated that the police stations had been made accessible by removing the sentry police constables. In the event of complaints, the public across the Zone could always call up their SPs, DIGs or even the IG or they could register their complaints with the grievances cell at 99440 95555.
