E-Paper
A cool contest to ensure that Ludhiana cops put on their best behaviour
Police stations will be judged on 25 parameters, including good behaviour, and there will also be a provision of negative marking of 20 points
Don’t be surprised if cops greet you with a smile on their faces during your visit to a police station in the city. The wind of change is expected to blow as the Ludhiana police are set to launch a contest to choose the best police station.
“Stations will be judged on 25 parameters, including good behaviour, and there will also be a provision of negative marking of 20 points,” said police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal.
The assessment will be done by a team of police officials and reputed residents of the city having no links with the police department.
There are 29 police stations, 30 police posts and 12 other units in Ludhiana.
Commissioner Agrawal said, “The idea to organise such contests was floated by DGP Dinkar Gupta. The top-ranked police station will get a reward amount of ₹3 lakh, followed by ₹1 lakh prize money to the second ranked station while the one on the third spot will get ₹50,000, besides certificates. Among the police posts, the reward will be 1 lakh, ₹50,000 and ₹25,000 for the top-three spots.”
Similar prizes will be given to top-three police units like women cell, cyber cell, and economic offence unit.
The police chief said even the office management of gazetted officers will be evaluated based on their capacity to supervise their units. They will also be ranked on the basis of their performance and disposal capabilities.
Five broad parameters
Agrawal said there will be five broad parameters to select the top performing and poorly performing police stations — location and access to station, community orientation and public facilities, welfare of police personnel, crime prevention and police station management, transparency and accountability.
“Each of these has been further divided into five sub-parameters. Each sub-parameter will have maximum four marks. These include whether there are signboards to guide public to the police station, beat map, crime chart and crime prevention tips written on flex boards, or if the police station building has been painted well, has greenery, and general cleanliness.
Infra, public dealing to be evaluated
Evaluation will also include the condition of visitors’ room, help desk, reception, toilet and water facilities, besides investigating officer’s work stations, progress of arrest of POs, recoveries under the NDPS Act, percentage of complaints disposed of within three months, maintenance of record room, condition of lock-ups, disposal of rape and Pocso cases within 30 days after the arrest of the accused.” Agrawal said.
“If any court passes an order regarding poor working of a police station, four marks will be deducted. Similarly, four marks will be lost if there is a law and order problem which could not be controlled by the police station concerned and a senior officer has to intervene. If more than 10% complaints are pending for more than three months, there will be a deduction of four marks. In case any employee is suspended for misconduct or caught for corruption, marks will be deducted as well,” he added.
He said police stations have been given two months’ time to prepare for the contest. Results will come out in the first week of June.
