Acting on the Chief Minister’s direction for giving ranking to the police stations in the State on the basis of their annual performance, Uttarakhand Director General of Police Anil K Raturi said on Tuesday that a committee headed by State Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Ram Singh Meena has been formed to draft a proposal on awarding ranks to the police stations as per their annual performance. The report would be submitted in 10 days, he added.
Notably, CM had said while taking a review meeting with the Home Department officials that the police station which receives the highest ranking on the basis of the annual assessment would be rewarded with a cash award of Rs one lakh.
ADGP Meena said that ranking to the police stations would be given on the basis of actions taken to redress the public complaints, solving registered FIRs and recovery of stolen items. Besides, the number of charge- sheets, prosecution rates, public dealing (behaviour with people who approach police stations for registering complaints) would be taken into consideration while making the ranking.
He further said that the police stations would be categorized under five or six grades. “There would be separate grades for the police stations located in the mountainous parts and the plains of the state. Those would secure highest marks would be awarded with cash prize of Rs one lakh and the police station in-charge or inspector/sub-inspector would benefit when their CRs would be written by the police officers concerned,” he said.
Senior cops on condition of anonymity said that based on annual assessment of the police stations of the districts, district police chiefs (SP/SSP) would be answerable if the police stations under them fare badly in terms of ranking.
Observers hail the move as a landmark one, hoping that things would substantially better in the police stations. “What generally happens is that the people who reach the police stations for lodging FIRs are not entertained by the police station officers concerned. FIR is lodged after the people visit the police stations repeatedly or they approach senior officers or the politicians. It is good that the police officers at the level of police station in-charge up to the district police chief would be held accountable if the people are made to suffer in matters of filing FIRs. The system of evaluation and ranking would hopefully end the practice of the senior cops selling police stations to selected officers in lieu of crores of rupees,” said an observer.