Free police from political shackles to ensure fair probe

Do you think the police need to take drastic steps to curb crime in the city?

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Not fair to blame police solely

Though it’s true that crime incidents have increased in the recent months, it is not fair to solely blame the police for this sorry state of affairs. They are performing their duty round the clock, with not too good salary. Many of them have also been left injured in attacks by goons and public. A few days back, an SHO was manhandled by some naval officers in Jalandhar for being questioned on flouting the curfew norms. Many such incidents have happened in the recent past. A writer once said that even if you post a police official in front of every house, crime won’t end in a locality. It has emerged out as a human nature of being indulged in such nefarious activities. Such incidents are perpetrated more by youth who are drug addicts or smugglers. Though the police too are not dyed-in-the-wool idealists, who perform their duty conscientiously, many of them had been suspended or even terminated for negligence or even complicit with the criminals. They need to be stricter in preventing such crimes. The police can’t handle political criminals who are living luxurious lives and have to be subservient to them. Former DGP of Punjab Julio Rebiero and that of J&K Gurbachan Jagat had earlier written that the police should be made free from the shackles of political parties, only then the crime rate can be curbed.

Dr JS Wadhwa

Revamp enforcement mechanism

Over the past few months, the astronomical increase in various crimes such as murder, rape, firing, assault, snatching, robbery and kidnapping across the state is surely a cause for concern. The scourge of crime creates a disturbance and panic among the residents and degrades the quality of life drastically and erodes the country’s image of a peaceful nation. Though the state government is taking several measures to check the menace, the ground situation does not seem to be improving. Anti-social elements are continuing their unlawful activities with impunity. The prevalence of criminal incidents can be attributed to a number of factors such as growing population, poverty, unemployment, corruption, widening social and economic inequalities, illiteracy, unplanned urbanisation, proliferation of slums and poor neighbourhoods, broken families, murky political and religious issues, lax and unfair police and judicial systems, terribly low conviction rate and meagre punishment etc. The need of the hour is to maintain law and order which is crucial to make society free from crime. In the given scenario, people always feel insecure and unsafe both inside and outside their homes. Dissatisfied with the police performance, they want it to take drastic steps to contain the crime rate and bring the guilty to book. Knowing the gravity of the situation and doing nothing on individual level is also not acceptable. People should be aware of their role in a civilised society. The police administration alone cannot address the problem without public support and cooperation. The government should revamp its law enforcement mechanism, break the unholy politician-police-criminal nexus and rid the police force from unwarranted political interference for the purpose.

DS Kang

Need to improve image of cops

How can a common man feel safe in such a scenario when the law-enforcing agency (police) itself is being thrashed and beaten up in broad daylight openly by hooligans. People are taking law into their own hands and have lost their faith in the functioning of the police due to their casual attitude and dereliction of duty. Though the government has made several attempts to end it, VIP culture is still prevalent in our society. The administration must focus on improving the image of the police among people. Also, political interference in the working of the police should end and there is a need to speed up judicial system.

GS Bhullar

People should be more vigilant

The incidents of thefts, snatching and eve-teasing have increased manifold in the recent past in the city. The police seem to be doing nothing to improve the situation. This indifferent attitude of cops has made the situation worse. Anti-social elements are roaming freely without any fear of the police. Cops sometimes seem to be hand-in-glove with criminals. In many cases, victims are only given assurance and not justice. It is due to this reason criminals do not fear the police anymore and thus the crime rate is increasing with each passing day. In some areas, residents have installed gates and erected concrete walls to check the entry of anti-social elements, causing more inconvenience than security. The judiciary should take action against criminals and all policemen who are not discharging their duties should be dealt with strictly. More CCTV cameras should be installed. People should be more vigilant while roaming in the market.

Shashi Kiran

Improve response time to crime incidents

Under the Constitution, every citizen is entitled to fundamental right to life and property and the directive principles enshrined therein bind the states to protect them through law and order machinery without any discretion and bias. But this is not happening and citizens continue to feel unsafe and insecure despite the presence of policemen around them. In recent times, apart from frequent cases of snatching, theft and other petty crimes, there have been numerous incidents of firing at minimal provocation, indicating how people lack trust in law and order machinery and how the criminals take it into their hands without even remotest fear of the police. The initial tracking and response time to crimes is not satisfactory and more disgustingly, conviction rate is very low. These facts erode the credibility of law and order apparatus, resulting into loss of required deterrence for violations. This can be largely attributed to non-professional approach to crimes and shameless politicisation of police force. There is undue interference in the working of police by political leaders at all levels, hampering independent and fair investigation into crime incidents. There is also an urgent need to use latest technology to prevent and trace petty crimes and fast track them through special tribunals/courts to ensure justice to the victims.

Jagdish Chander

Admn, police need to work in tandem

The issue of maintaining law and order lies with the administration and the police and both should join hands to curb the menace of robbery, snatching and other such crimes. Maintaining law and order has always been the priority of the Police Department. Amid the ongoing pandemic, the police are also sensitising people to always wear a mask and practise socialdistancing. To check crime rate, the police should install CCTV cameras at various sensitive points and keep a strict vigil round the clock on all main entrances to the city. The police should strictly follow their manuals without any political interference or pressure. They should also post two to three policemen along with the traffic police at every chowk. The police should rope in more personnel from PAP to keep a tab on crime rate. Meetings of police-public and peace committees should be held regularly once a month so that members can highlight their suggestions and problems faced by residents.

Rajat Kumar Mohindru

Prompt action, chasing of criminals must

The police are not doing anything to improve the situation of increasing incidents of car-jacking and snatching in our cities. Our ‘guardians of the citizens’ have become rather immune to such incidents taking place on regular basis.They have failed to plan a suitable strategy to tackle this problem. Police force must be deployed at various vulnerable locations with suitable electronic gadgets to remain in touch with their other officers and keep a tab of all anti-social elements. Prompt action and chasing the criminals is the need of the hour. To some extent, we too must share the blame for our indifference, when we do not help the victim by striving to caution the other passersby to stop these culprits from fleeing the spot easily. Loud howling and shouting such as ‘catch the thief’ etc may help in nabbing them. Will it be an offence to suspect some elements in our police force itself, who may be conniving with culprits to get away.Thorough interrogation/ debriefing of duty police persons near the place of such incidents will also help in establishing the role and competence of concerned policemen.

PL Singh

Citizens must report incident on time

Certainly, there has been a tremendous increase in the crime incidents like firing, snatching, robbery, etc. Yes, I do feel unsafe amid this scenario. I want to be an IPS officer, therefore I have always been engrossed towards watching crime-based programmes such as Savdhaan India – India fights back, Crime patrol and CID etc. These shows depict the crimes being carried out at a large scale and how the police solve these cases and track the criminals. This shows that the police perform their duty with full responsibility, but should be more aware of all these incidents. The citizens too should inform the police about the incidents in time and file an FIR. Such incidents can be reduced only if the citizens cooperate with the police and trust them.

Izleen

Make, enforce more stringent laws

Lawlessness is growing unabated at an alarming rate. Who does not feel unsafe and insecure amid such a scenario wherein the criminals are striking with impunity as and when they please? It speaks volumes about the inefficiency and incompetence of the police who have miserably failed to break the backbone of the criminals prowling in broad daylight. The police must take drastic steps to curb crime incidents. It should ensure obedience to the law and try to make ‘the rule of law’ a reality. The present law follows a circuitous procedure to punish the guilty. More often than not, the real culprits go scot free which acts as an encouraging factor for the prospective criminals to commit more crimes. Right education is needed to make the citizens socially and psychologically healthy. Besides, law should be made more stringent and should be enforced rigorously. We have the police with all their weaponry, surveillance and round-the-clock vigil, yet incidents of firing, snatching and robbery take place frequently. The police and the public will have to work in tandem to get rid of the menace. All residents of a vulnerable area should be sensitised about the danger lurking near them. Security and police personnel should remain alert all time particularly during festive occasions and at crowded public places. The people should report any suspicious looking person immediately to the police before he strikes. The police must proceed with a well-thought out and well-planned strategy to check the perpetrators of crime incidents. Public too should take up the responsibility to install advanced security systems at their homes. The district police should set up a special cell for the assistance of people to make them feel safe and secure from the vultures of crime. The Cell should endeavour to ensure effective and prompt response to the people’s distress call. Fear of judiciary must be instilled in the minds of the criminals to halt the advance of the crime graph.

Tarsem S Bumrah

Tech must be used to track criminals

Today’s Indian society is dominated by unlawful activities. Survey reports of recent months witness the spread of crimes like robbery, theft, snatching and illegal firing in Punjab. Need for money, lack of opportunities and easy access to weapons influence youngsters to commit crime. Zeal to own latest gadgets, passion to drive luxury vehicles and hosting grand parties to impress friends are basic reasons behind deviation towards crime. Mainly, high consumption and addiction of drugs, liquor and illegal firing during parties paves a way towards crime zone for youngsters. Though the police have increased surveillance on roads and put up check points across the cities but the situation does not seem to be improving as most of the time these steps are not implemented at ground level. The police have to take some serious steps to tackle this situation. It’s the duty of the government to provide them with latest technology, gadgets and vehicles for their convenience.

Parampreet Kaur

Know difference between need & want

As per crime rate chart, the crime rate has increased by 47 per cent in Amritsar cityin the past three years, in which 65 per cent of the crimes included those related to corruption and bribery, 53 per cent was related to people dealing with drugs, 43 per cent and 37 per cent related to theft and robbery respectively. The increase in crime incidents in the city is due to increase in number drug addicts; continuous increase in Arms licence to youngsters; lack of standard in education system, where schools, colleges and universities are teaching children to be more money-oriented instead of making them understand the difference between needs and wants; unemployment; unfair judicial system; poverty and gangster culture which influences youngsters in a negative way. To curb the crime incidents, the police should treat people equally and make an independent and fair probe. The police must make effective use of their surveillance systems such as CCTV cameras and alarm system specially placed at public places during night.

Ankur Gupta

Wake-up call for the police

Incidents of purse-snatching and theft have become common in the city. Last week, a well known surgeon Dr Navpreet Singh’s son was shot at and his car was seized near Chheherta. I spoke to about ten people and almost everyone narrated similar unpleasant incidents. Recently in my neighbourhood, a scooter thief disguised as a rag picker, stole the vehicle from a house and fled the spot in broad daylight. The incident was captured in a CCTV camera installed at a shop opposite to the house. If the crime rate came down drastically last year, it was probably due to the nation-wide lockdown. Things are now back to square one, cyber crimes too are rising at an alarming rate. We often read about one or the other gang getting nabbed by the police, but hardly any of them are convicted. The police know what to do to tackle the problem well and have highly competent officers, but there is no political will.

Mohan Singh

Unemployment the main reason

The scenario in the state is the result of a weak government and governance. Unemployment is one of the reasons behind increase in rate of crime. Incidents such as murder, robbery, rape, snatching, firing and fraud are on rise and the police are not doing anything to check these activities. While the people are living in a complete sense of insecurity due to this lawlessness, our political leaders are busy in back stabbing each other and not paying attention to the needs of the residents and make strict laws and take steps to curb crime rate in the state. Political vendetta has weakened the system and corruption is everywhere. The government must know its role and duty and do the needful to check the crime rate for the convenience of the public.

Indu Aurora

Remain alert while out in public places

Incidents of firing, snatching and robbery have spread like a disease in our city. Gone are the days when life was secure and peaceful and people lived a carefree life. A few days back, a heart wrenching firing incident was reported which made me wonder and question the meagre existence of humanity left in the society. A person’s life is precious than anything else and people need to always remember this. Unfortunately, there is no end to similar cases of firing, snatching and robbery in the past few days. One has to remain alert and cautious while out in the public places and the police too need to take some drastic steps to ensure safety of the people.

Manvi Malhotra

Reward persons helping victims

It is such a shame that the holy city is witnessing so many crime incidents recently. I do feel unsafe in such a scenario and the authorities should take more strict action against the anti-social elements behind these incidents. More number of CCTV cameras must be installed throughout the city so that any wrongdoing can be rectified instantly. Any person who helps the victim in a crime incident can be rewarded with cash to ensure active participation of the residents. Both the people and authorities must come together to make the city peaceful and safe.

Jatinderpal Singh Batth

Promote citizens of good conduct as role models

• For the overall development of the society, it is important for the authorities to ensure safety of the public. To check the crime rate in the city, there is a need to use improved high technology by the police to nab anti-social elements
• Citizens of good conduct and celebrities should be promoted as role models on social media to set an example for the residents to follow. If someone is stopping or preventing any kind of crime (in any way or proportion) then the police should make their videos viral as a message and sign of motivation for others. Criminals who joined the mainstream must be highlighted positively
• There is a need to encourage humanity in our society. Spirituality too should be promoted so that people do not deviate and commit crimes in society
• The issues of unemployment, drug abuse and begging should be ended as these are leading to a spike in crime incidents in the city
• The number of CCTV cameras installed should be increased. Camps on learning techniques of self-defence should be organised and made mandatory for girls and children to ensure their safety.

Manmeet Pal Kaur

QUESTION

As the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is at its peak, will night curfew in the state help in restraining the spread of the deadly virus?

Suggestions in not more than 200 words can be sent to jalandhardesk@tribunemail.com by Thursday (April 22).