Rotarians gain insight into the policing realities of Maharashtra
Javed Ahmad
Javed Ahmad is a well-known face in the police force and is ranked among the finest IPS officers in the state. He has worked as the Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police (Law and Order) and was posted as the Additional Director-General (Law and Order) in the state police before he took over as Police Commissioner of Navi Mumbai in 2012.
Mr. Ahmad thanked the Program Committee Head, Rtn. Nanik Rupani for his invitation and told the audience that his profession and the department he is working for are, unfortunately, not yet of the calibre he wants them to be. He told Rotarians and Rotaryannes that he chose this topic for the speech to make the educated urban Indian citizens aware of the challenges of policing and why the Indian police department continues to evoke a negative response from the community. “In the three and a half decades that I have been in the department, we haven’t reached a respect-worthy stage. I know it is not happening as quickly or uniformly as it should. It has to be a matter of concern to us as citizens, because if we are not happy with the service, or any service for that matter – be it municipal, health-related or law enforcement, we should be looking at the core problems and our role as citizens to try and solve it. I appreciate that many of you can say ‘I wish I could do it, but I cannot because I am not the legal authority to execute it’, but we need citizens to be opinion-makers or influence policy, or both, to be able to make a significant difference.”He began with something very basic – the lack of awareness among people. “A bulk of citizens, especially the educated, is not aware of the criminal justice system which governs them and this is where our problem lies. When an organisation or individual cons you, you fall for it and do not know how to convict the party. The second you step on the street as a pedestrian, a motorist, or in any other capacity, you are being governed by some rule of the state of the Government of India. I am not sure how many of you here have had encounters with the police department. So your lack of awareness is compounded by the fact that the impression you form of any governmental department is based solely on hearsay or media portrayal,” he said.
The other concept he said citizens are not aware of is what exactly comes under the jurisdiction of the police department. “What do you expect the department to be doing legally, legitimately and logically? Our core duties are basically maintenance of law and order in traffic detection and prevention of crime and security. These are laid down by the Indian Criminal Justice System as per the Acts of the Government of India, the Central Acts and even the State Acts. However, we are now called upon to perform non-core duties which have become an impediment as we are expected to implement laws that come with a social angle and society is yet to accept them like such as the ban on public smoking, the selling and consumption of tobacco, etc.
“This is not to say they are not important or should not be implemented but there should be an agency implementing it, not the police. The reason I am sharing this is to familiarise you with the challenges that we face because these duties are subject to the availability of funds, infrastructure and manpower,”, he added.
Every citizen expects the city he or she lives in to be safe and protected. Ahmad listed the numerous conflicts and loopholes that arise in the safekeeping of a state. He said, “In Maharashtra, it’s much safer to be in a big city such as Mumbai or Pune as compared to the other states where safety is still a growing concern. There are challenges we face that may not even have crossed your minds. The public tells us that our biggest issues are that we are underpaid and have to work with poor infrastructural services. Although partly true, the challenges we face are much more serious. We are now heading for the 7th Pay Commission in 2016, after which entry level policemen will draw decent salaries, coupled with perks like free housing, free medical, and in many places, free education. By and large, it is not as bad as it was when we joined the service many years ago.”
He also spoke about the constraints of dealing with an archaic legal structure and outdated laws that are still present in the system. “The Prime Minister of India very rightly said that the laws that have outlived their utility and are not in sync with the needs of the 21st century in India need to be repealed. The legal structure that governed the criminal justice system came into existence in the 1860’s and the entire focus of these laws was and still is colonial. They were geared to take care of the needs of a colonial power and there is an urgent need to modify them. Almost everybody present here today has cribbed about the traffic problem and how dismal the traffic police service is. Nobody looks into the deterrent for the citizen though and the deterrence of the Motor Vehicle Act of India is non-existent.
“Coupled with this is the second challenge, which is the rising expectations of the public in general. This becomes difficult for the department to live up to when you compare it to that of developing nations such as Europe and America. Unfortunately, we change our laws only when something really serious happens, like the ghastly rape case in Delhi which brought in amendments in the IPC and other laws in a draconian manner. If a holistic view is taken into consideration when these changes come in, it can be more effective.”
He also introduced Rotarians to the Right to Service Act. “You will be surprised to know that the first state in the country to implement this act was Bihar. The documents and services that impinge the common citizens in a small way will be created and delivered in a given time frame, which along with the fee will be mentioned on the relevant website. If it doesn’t happen in the alloted time frame, you can reach the person accountable for it through the site. This curbs any room for corruption as you don’t need to know somebody influential or worse, pay a government functionary to get these services anymore, which I think, should have happened years ago. The Right To Service Act is going to go a long way, like RTI. Even today a lot of changes have come in, in the governmental working thanks to the RTI”, he said.
In closing, he requested Rotarians to ponder over some of the issues discussed by him and contribute to an effective citizen-police partnership in the future. He said, “we do have corrupt people in the force, but we also have efficient and devoted officers. The numbers are imbalanced which is why, it is important that you, as responsible citizens should know and perform your duties.
“Today, Maharashtra Police is the single largest civil police force in the entire country. We are more than 200,000 in number and we need better training and professionalism which will go into making the police force the service that we all require.”