Delivering a lecture under the ‘Distinguished lecture Series’ Ashok Kumar, ADGP - Intelligence and Security, Uttarakhand and Director Vigilance, Uttarakhand spoke on the topic of “POlICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS.” In an interactive session he discussed on one side the various public opinions about the police while also informing the audience about the challenges of the police department.
To make the session interesting, Kumar prompted the students to voice their perceptions about the police and subsequently addressed their concerns. Arun Dhand, Director (Media Affairs) UPES shared that some of the top concerns voiced by students included difficulties in getting an FIR registered, Corruption at all levels, unfair investigations, Physical excesses, political interventions and Rude behaviour.
Kumar who has authored to books which include” Men in Khakhi” and “Challenges to Internal Security of India” and a recipient of the United Nations Medal and Presidents Police Medal took the audience through a power point presentation wherein he gave some insight on how the crime graphs of various crimes like third Degree torchers, custodial deaths, custodial rapes & fake encounters have come down ever since the human rights act came into being in 1993.
Talking about the challenges Kumar shared that the biggest challenge faced by the Police departments across all states barring Delhi is the under-deployment of human resource and stands at almost one fourth of the Global standards.
Uttarakhand has 1.31 police personnel deployed for every 1000 citizens whereas in Delhi this ratio is 4.0 per 1000 population.
The other challenge is the working hours, whereas the other departments have working hours of 8 hours, the police personnel have to on an average has to perform duties up to 13 hours in a day. Extended working hours, with no stipulated off days and nature of work takes their toll on them and as a result tends to make them irritable he said.
Other dignitaries including Shrihari, VC of the University, Tabrez Ahmed; Director of ColS, Sanjiv Zutshi, Senior Director (Operations); Brig SS Dhillon, Director of Administration; Sandeep Vashisht, Financial Controller and other Senior faculty members of college of legal Studies.