Uttarakhand okays police reforms, hiring of experts to solve complex crimes

The State police would hire the services of professionals in solving cases of cybercrime and economic offences which are becoming complex and serious day by day, said a senior official.

Uttarakhand has agreed to a series of police reforms for achieving modernisation and efficacy including hiring of professionals to solve complex cybercrimes and economic offences apart from introduction of a digitised system for policing.

The reforms approved include measures needed to turn the State police force SMART. (PTI Photo)

These reforms, to be introduced over the next two years, were discussed between director general of police Ashok Kumar and State home secretary Nitesh Jha on Monday at the police headquarters.

These suggestions were offered by nine committees formed by Kumar to consider necessary reforms and turning the State police SMART which, when expanded, stands for sensitive and strict, modern with mobility, alert and accountable, reliable and responsible and trained and techno-savvy.

“The suggestions for the reformative measures given by the committees were discussed in detail with the home secretary who in principle agreed to implement most of them,” said DGP Kumar.

“Among the major reforms, state police would hire the services of professionals in solving cases of cybercrime and economic offences which are becoming complex and serious day by day. Apart from this, e-beat book system would also be implemented to digitise the working in police stations,” said Kumar.

He also announced that the State police would soon acquire 100 MUVs to improve the mobility and response time of police.

“These cars will have modern equipment on the lines of UP’s Dial 100 mechanism. To modernise the city police, we would equip them with short-range weapons instead of long-range ones. The tourist police will also be improved with development of new infrastructure for them,” Kumar added.

On reducing the stress of posting in hilly areas among the personnel, Kumar said that its tenure would be halved.

“The posting tenure in hilly areas would be reduced to 8 from 16 years for constables and for head constables, it would be reduced from 12 to 6 years and 8 to 4 years for sub-inspectors,” said Kumar.

The DGP said that the department will reward commoners for helping the injured in road accidents to remove the existing fear that doing so will entangle them in various police procedures.

“The DGP will offer a cash reward up to Rs 1 lakh to those helping the injured in road accidents so that more people come forward to help. We would also increase the cash reward limit of DGP to police personnel from existing Rs 20,000 to Rs 2 lakh. A separate budget will be there for it,” said Kumar.

Among the other important reforms, he said, “Police would introduce the entry of women in fire service and continue the practice of serving e-summons, which was introduced during the pandemic to deal with restrictions. We have also planned a new PHQ building soon which would be spread in an area of about two acres.”

Home secretary Nitesh Jha said that the home department has agreed to most of the reforms except a few on financial grounds which, too, would be resolved soon.

Jha added that a three-member committee including retired senior IAS officers Madhukar Gupta, Indu Pandey and retired DGP Anil Raturi has been formed for solving the issue regarding handing over of revenue police areas to the regular police.

Uttarakhand is the only State with nearly 60% area still under revenue police, a system introduced by the British in 1861, in which revenue officials double up as cops with the right to arrest an accused and investigate cases.

The British made system was made keeping the low crime rate in the hilly areas around a century and half ago and has now become obsolete, according to experts.

“We have agreed on most of the reforms and we would first work on developing the recruitment process of new personnel and improving the infrastructure in police stations,” said Jha.