?Darogas? calling the shots

POOR administration, as they say, can sometimes make good politics ? especially when elections are round the corner..So no matter what the police top brass have to say about policing in the State, the ?job? is virtually in the hands of politically well-connected lower rung officers ?the inspectors, the station officers and the sub-inspectors ? who directly take instructions from their powerful political mentors.

POOR administration, as they say, can sometimes make good politics — especially when elections are round the corner..

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So no matter what the police top brass have to say about policing in the State, the ‘job’ is virtually in the hands of politically well-connected lower rung officers –the inspectors, the station officers and the sub-inspectors – who directly take instructions from their powerful political mentors.

The recent incident involving Ferozabad SP Amitabh Thakur is only one of the many cases in point. Thakur was coolly shown the door by his subordinates when he had gone to file an FIR in a police station against an SP MLA, who had manhandled him. Thakur was also transferred later.

“Imagine the kind of impact such incidents have on the morale of the seniors,” said an IPS officer adding, “With the ‘daroga’ system firmly in place, the district police chiefs have virtually become non-entities.”

The situation has further worsened because of a rudderless police leadership in the districts. “It is also the problem of right people not being there in right places in the districts,” commented another officer adding, quite a few good and young IPS officers were rusting on insignificant posts in the State.

The reason behind the decay is perhaps simple ‘arithmetic’. For politicians, lower ranking cops are more ‘reliable’ than IPS officers, who look around before doing their work.

“The problem is more acute in Kanpur and Agra range,” said another senior IPS officer adding, direct political intervention in the functioning of the force had made the situation grim. “Even the district police chief cannot transfer the SHOs without the nod of local politicians,” commented the officer.

Moreover, the ‘cop-criminal’ nexus has further worsened things. Since ‘crime pays’, these SHOs and their ilk get attracted towards unlawful activities.
Interestingly, Yashpal Singh during his term as DGP had tried to break the criminal-cop nexus with little success. There is no such exercise on now.