Delhi Police will induct 160 youngsters from North-Eastern States every year to make the force better equipped to deal with hate crimes against people from these States in the national Capital. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju made the announcement at Delhi Police HQs while holding a meeting with senior Delhi Police officials on Tuesday morning.

Rijiju said that 10 male and 10 female police officers each will be inducted into the Delhi Police from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. For this, Rijiju has written a letter to the Chief Ministers of all these eight States to recruit the youth as per their recruitment policy and procedure. The letter was signed by him at PHQ in the presence of Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi and other senior officials.

The decision has been taken keeping in mind the low representation of people from the North-East in the force, which has seen a spurt in crimes against people from the hilly States residing in the Capital. “What we have realised is that Delhi Police does not proportionately represent the people of North-East in its ranks. There are incidents wherein we feel people from the North-East have to be more visible,” said Rijiju.

At present, only 39 policemen from the North-Eastern States are serving with Delhi Police. Of these, 10 are Indian Police Service (IPS) officers while the rest are constables, head constables or inspectors. He also gave an assurance about the complete implementation of the Bezbaruah Committee recommendations.

The committee headed by MP Bezbaruah, Member of the North-Eastern Council, was set up in February 2014 after a 19-year-old student from Arunachal Pradesh, Nido Tania, died in Delhi after an alleged racial attack on January 29, 2014. The 11-member committee had conducted a study into the problems and recommended measures to reduce conflicts faced by people from the North-East.

The committee’s mandate was to listen to the issues raised by people from North-East India living in other parts of the country, especially in Metro cities. The committee was also asked to suggest measures, which could be adopted by the Government of India. The committee filed its report with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on July 11, 2014.

A number of young man and woman had gathered at the PHQ on this occasion and Rijiju interacted with them to understand the problems faced by them and their possible solutions. Rijiju also praised Delhi Police for its efforts to tackle issues related to people from the North-East and its approach in tackling crime in the city as whole.

“Often what we see is that the achievements or the success stories of Delhi Police or for that matter any force is not reflected proportionately, but failures are. I must say that we do have failures as the challenges we face are very complex, but the success story of Delhi Police is very high,” said Rijiju.