Community policing in the State: An absurd pantomime
Welcome to the brave new world of community policing in our State. In an airy-fairy address last week to police officers from all over the State involved in community policing, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik droned about how it has successfully minimised, ahem, public’s inherent reluctance to approach the police. He was probably confusing the objective of community policing with its actual fulfilment. Wherefrom he got the impression that community policing has bridged the gap between the police and the publicIJ The squalid truth is that the chasm between them still remains as great as before. The sense of alienation and the negative feeling the common man has about the police don’t show any sign of lessening despite claims to the contrary by the community policing blowhards. Patnaik’s claim is more asserted than evidenced. He is a ventriloquist’s dummy in the hands of his speech-writers. Whatever is ghost-written for him he reads them out without any application of his mind. The gung-ho DGP (he will be more of a windy rhetorician as he nears his retirement in the next three months) and other high-ranking smoothies parroted identical platitudes that everything was hunky-dory with community policing and Patnaik believed them with credulous blankness. But take it from me: community policing is dead in the water. Here is why I say this. Two key components of community policing in our State, monikered in a touchy-feely way as Ama Police, are lying in tatters. First, each police station should have several beats and the beat officer’s name and identity should be exhibited at all important places in his allotted beat area. He should know everybody in his beat area through his regular house visits, and everybody also should know him personally. Second important component of community policing is ‘Ama Police Samiti’ (APS). Each police station should form an APS, comprising about 25 persons, including police station personnel and the local citizens. The inspector in-charge of the police station should hold monthly meetings with the APS members and address safety and security issues of the locality.. Though the Ama Police scheme is in operation in all the 504 police stations of the State, only a few have formed beats and Samitis and fewer have made them functional. An accompanying component of community policing is appointment of Special Police Officer (SPO) from among the public-spirited men and women in the jurisdiction of a police station. If these SPOs are appointed and they perform their duties as prescribed for them, they will greatly assist the police in not only preventing crimes and maintaining order but also in doing a whole host of non-police jobs, thus freeing up time for the police officers to attend to more serious crimes. These three measures are the beating heart of community policing. Have our police implemented them or flat-lined themIJ Did the Chief Minister inquire about this before giving his nearly content-free address at the conferenceIJ In the absence of any worthwhile mention about this in his speech, the entire exercise was an absurd pantomime. If the Chief Minister is ignorant about community policing or indifferent about its implementation, how can he expect the police to deliver on this initiativeIJ In Patnaik’s administration, initiatives are easily started than sustained. The Police Commissionerate website says nothing about the formation of beats and APS and mentions about appointment of SPOs in just two out of 21 police stations in Bhubaneswar and none at all in Cuttack. Only the terminally naive would believe the Chief Minister when he says that all the police stations in the State are implementing community policing. The mouthy Police Commissioner, who, day in and day out, bewails lack of manpower, is extremely laden-footed in implementing it in the twin cities. The bottom line is: Community policing is a buzz phrase around which a great gaseous cloud of mock seriousness is whipped up at regular intervals to show off the Patnaik Government’s love for modern concepts of policing. Has deception been ever more hideous than thisIJ
BDA is a building-sized scarecrow
If you are looking for an acute case of institutional moribundity, go no further than the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). The city’s building watchdog just didn’t know that within mere minutes of drive from its stately office the Trahi Achyuta Ashram complex with nearly 150 buildings in it had come up even without a pretence of its approval. Once the ashram came under spotlight for its notorious activities, the BDA’s demolition Johnnies swung into action like Batman and declared, like Shankaracharya is a Hindu, that the entire complex was illegal. In fact, all over the city, too many buildings are being constructed without the BDA knowing or doing anything about them. Only years later, as if to prove their existence, the BDA undertakes token demolition of illegal constructions and that too under public and media pressure or if the structure obstructs municipal services like drainage. People construct houses in wanton disregard of the cuddly BDA. Its contribution to orderly development of the city is on a par with that of a sparrow. It is at best a building-sized scarecrow. And, what is worse, it is far away from the actual crop field. The crows have become wiser and they no longer fear it. The BDA has enormous powers to pull down the whole or part of the illegal structures. But it does not have the manpower and the will power to do it. It resembles a geriatric sheep suffering from acute gingivitis.
Mahimanand Mishra faces a moment of truth
Is it curtains for Paradip Port’s czar Mahimanand MishraIJ The way things are happening after he hastily, and definitely unwisely, called a strike against the PPT Chairman’s action in permitting an out-of-State company to do stevedoring job at Paradip, the lion seems to be getting increasingly bearded in his own den. The Hyderabad-based company, Seaways Shipping and logistics Pvt ltd (SSlPl), not only retained its stevedoring job but also cocked a snook at Mishra’s authority by floating a rival association. It is like parking a tank in Mishra’s backyard. After the unsuccessful strike, Mishra’s power and influence have suffered third-degree burns. His authority is in ineluctable decline. He has gone from predator to prey. He has suddenly become Citizen Kane. Observers say Mishra failed to read the new situation correctly and adopt himself accordingly. The SSlPl, with the backing of the PPT’s assertive Chairman and possibly political bosses in Delhi, is triumphantly marching on like an invading army. The BJD Government’s hands-off approach, widely suspected to be a stitch-up between the Centre and the State, has hung him out to dry. As a result, Mishra is right now out in the cold. Sandwiched between a hostile port authority and an aggressive rival, the odds are heavily against him. The moment of truth for him has arrived. The days of the alpha male’s supreme authority at the Paradip Port may be over unless he reinvents himself in the near term. But if he persists with his retro leadership style, his comeback to his former role as the paramount leader of the Paradip Port may be unknowably distant.
(saratpattanayak@hotmail.com (M) 9437962121)