Police Organisation In Manipur : Quality, not Quantity is the Priority

Seram Neken *

Policemen parade at Independence Day function at 1st MR Parade Ground, Imphal on 15 August 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Every commercial driver on the street needs to shake its hand with the security personnel on duty. A tacit exchange of a ten rupee note between the two hands is a mandatory go-ahead signal in Imphal city. Almost all passers-by in the city or any of the commercial drivers can give the testimony to this fact.

Right from the public buses and trucks to the Auto-Riksaws and Magic-tatas, such uniformed personnel do not spare any commercial vehicle in demanding bucks. The more the number of uniformed personnel, the greater will be the hazard.

Hopefully, such trend of collecting small bribes from the poor drivers will come to an end with the coming of the new Director General of Police.

In the national scenario, the highly effective electronic media news channels follow the crimes and their investigations upto the end. No related agency can remain adamant and inactive in the face of the news channels such as NDTV and the Times Now. The live telecast of 'Newshour' of the Times Now moderated by Arnab Goswami is such a powerful platform where the serious issues and crimes are discussed with related political leaders, bureaucrats, social scientists etc.

Its role in the recent arrest of Godman Asaram for a sexual assault case was worthy of appreciation and all media organizations need to imitate such endeavours. However, in Manipur such an effective media can hardly come out for fear of various consequences – from both the state and the non-state folks. Public has now the apprehension that a number of investigations have not been completely done and justice is not delivered to the victims. It is probable that a weak police agency is taking advantage of a pressured media in Manipur.

After a brief complacency, the law and order scenario in Imphal city has again back to the worse. Recent incidents of bomb blasts and crimes like murder of drivers in the state have probably exposed the weak intelligence networks of the state government. Further, the investigation works and booking of culprits in such heinous crimes are not done to the satisfaction of the public. Although the state Police department has the enough manpower, it obviously lacks quality and equipment to deal with crimes. Of course, the state home department might have lodged necessary FIRs on these cases. However, the investigations are slow and not upto the mark.

The gruesome murders of a van driver and an auto-driver in two separate incidents during the past one month or so agitated the public particularly the poor drivers who are earning day's bread by holding the steering. General strikes and protests were staged on both the eventualities. However, the processes of investigations into such crimes have not been public so far. Whether the Police did the investigations effectively? Whether any criminal has been booked and tried in the court of law? The public has been put into the dark in many cases of such nature.

Manipur is a small state with a considerably small population, as compared to other Indian states. The number of security personnel stationed in Manipur is quite enough to prevent crimes of various types. Khwairamband Bazaar is flooded with uniform security personnel ranging from the civil police, traffic police and village defence forces to the paramilitary forces like the Assam Rifles and CRPF. However, such a huge security presence could do nothing in preventing the recent bomb blasts in Nagamapal area in which nine migrant workers were killed. Earlier on the same day, a blast at Khurai in Imphal east had injured an auto-driver and a security personnel.

The twin pre-independence day blasts near the Chief Minister's residence and the Palace gate were also ample proof of inefficiency of the security people. The erection of CCTV cameras in the city areas has been reduced to a farce, as they are not effectively utilized to prevent city crimes. The huge expenditure incurred in the erection of the CCTV cameras has been a great loss to the government exchequer.

The more the number of uniformed personnel, the greater will be the consequence. At many points on highways and streets, a number of security persons in uniform take bribes from the vehicle owners. Every passer-by in the city or any of the commercial drivers can give the testimony to this fact. Right from the public buses and trucks to the Auto-Riksaw and Magic-tata, the uniform personnel do not spare any commercial vehicle. A careful handshake between the driver and the personnel manning the street with a ten rupee note is a go-ahead signal. It seems mandatory in the city areas.

Every political leader heading the home department always speaks of police reformation, manpower recruitment, police-public relations etc. etc. on many occasions. Sadly enough, these phrases still remain verbatim. Our police force needs to be trained on modern investigation techniques and be equipped with technologies to deal with a variety of crimes. Quantity sans Quality is worse. It is high time we bring a paradigm shift from numbers to quality.

VOICE OF THE WEEK

A quality soldier is far better than a thousand unqualified personnel. Manipur Police is incomparable in quantity, but far behind others in quality. It probably lacks training and modern equipment to deal with the multifarious crimes occurring in the society. Before discussing recruitment of huge forces, the state government may zero in on training the existing police personnel and equipping them with modern technologies.