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Imperative of police reforms Strategy to check chemical pollution On Record
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Criminals in uniform In UP, altogether 22,000 policemen were recruited during the previous Samajwadi Party regime (2004-06). Several irregularities have been detected in the probe conducted by the present government after it came to power. Irregularities in the recruitment include waving of police verifications to recruit people with criminal records, forging examination papers, caste certificates, fudging scores and changing laid-down procedures and criteria for selection of candidates. Malpractice and unabashed corruption in the recruitment of constables that has come to light in UP is deplorable. These reflect very poorly on the functioning and leadership of the police force in the state. Constables constitute nearly 80 per cent of the police force at the cutting edge of law enforcement. A constable has maximum visibility and interacts with the public all the time in maintaining order. He has to be physically fit and mentally alert for proper order maintenance and crime prevention. Constables can no longer afford to function as mere automatons recruited to perform duties of a mechanical character. The Committee on Police Training 1973, (better known as the Gore Committee) observed that, “recruitment procedures should be so devised that they are free from political, personal or other corruptive influences. The need for objectivity in selection cannot be over emphasised.” Certain prescribed selection procedures have been laid down in the police manuals and in government circular orders for recruitment of constables but what actually happened in UP is shocking and scandalous. There was heavy political pressure to select candidates whose lists had earlier drawn up by persons who were close to the political power centre. The list was prepared on caste and pecuniary considerations. According to reliable information, each candidate had to pay between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 4 lakh for an appointment. Many young boys were compelled to take heavy loans or mortgage their lands to pay bribes to the officials and the politicians. The selection boards at different centres were constituted in a partisan manner. These consisted of venal and obliging officers. Lists of candidates to be appointed were sent to the senior police officers heading the selection panels at different centres. The willing officers bent backwards and disregarded all norms and rules for selection of candidates favoured by the political bigwigs by lowering qualifying physical standards, downgrading interview yardsticks and also allowing outsiders to write the answer papers. Worse, mandatory police verification was given a go-by in many cases and in some recruitment centres else other than the candidates had taken the examination. In the process, the means and methods of malpractices also have undergone changes. In UP, it is reported that a private firm was hired to check the objective type questions of answer sheets. In several answer sheets whitener was used to erase old answers. Incidentally, similar modus operandi was recently detected in the selection of candidates of a paramilitary organisation of the Central Government. The officers who do not play the ball and refuse to toe the line are humiliated and hounded. I know of the case of a Director-General of Police in UP who was humiliated and stripped of authority because he declined to accommodate candidates who were recommended by the political bigwigs. The officers could not stomach the humiliation and took premature retirement. In UP, probe by a senior police officer into the recruitment scandal has further exposed that some girl candidates were sexually exploited before being selected. This triggered controversies and the concerned senior officer has been ticked off, but it is reliably learnt that there is substance in what he has alleged. A thorough probe into the recruitment malpractices will indeed open a can of worms. The UP government has annulled the recruitment of about 17,000 constables and suspended 25 officers of the Indian Police Service who headed different selection boards. FIRs under different sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against these suspended officers. For the first time, a state government has taken this kind of determined action. This is welcome. However, the motive should not be political revenge. It will also be incorrect and premature to plan arrest of the officers allegedly involved before investigation against them is completed. It will only cause demoralisation and cynicism among police ranks. The occasion should provide an opportunity to set things right and establish a palpably honest and fair recruitment. The Mayawati government, instead of just scoring political points, should try to institutionalise free and fair recruitment in police. Otherwise, 20,000 dismissed constables and a large number of angry officers in cahoots with disgruntled politicians in opposition will add chaos and confusion in UP’s volatile politics. Unfortunately, malpractice and corruption in the recruitment of police personnel is becoming a pattern in many states. Sometime back in Orissa the State Vigilance Bureau had to start criminal cases against a retired Director-General of Police and a number of police officers of different ranks after detecting corruption in the recruitment of the police staff. Indeed, corruption in recruitment in public services is endemic problem of a developing state with growing unemployment and economic distress. However, in the police entrusted with the job of law enforcement, elimination of corrupt practices in recruitment is not only vital for the health of the force but also for the well being of society. Police constables who joint the service by making heavy payments will extort money from the people to make good the money paid earlier and indulge in various malpractices. They will turn into veritable extortionists and sully the image of the force. And this is precisely what is happening now. Criminals in uniform are crowding the force. However, there are silver linings. Some states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have streamlined recruitment procedures, which so fair, transparent, and by and large, immune from outside pressures. Given the political will, there is no reason why this is not possible in other states. The recruitment scandal also highlighted the imperative need for police reforms. There is a need to insulate the police from extraneous pressures and selection of upright officers for important assignments. Otherwise, the prevalent system of malpractice and corruption in police recruitment will continue and sound a death-knell for police integrity and
discipline. The writer, a former Director-General of Police, National Human Rights Commission, is currently Senior Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi
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Profile The technique was perfected by Dr Anand Karve, who set up a kiln to char the leaves to convert cane waste into smoke-free block of compressed coal. The fuel thus produced could be used in rural as well as urban homes. His invention won him the prestigious Ashden Award for renewable energy. Dr Karve was last week honoured with the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for his contribution to application of science and technology for rural development. Heading the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI), Dr Karve
thus found use for 4.5 million-odd tonnes of sugarcane leaves in Maharashtra, India’s largest cane producing state. Also his institute designed hand-made kilns are small enough for a farmer’s backyard. Simultaneously, ARTI worked on a coking system, a domestic stove to burn cane-leaf coal. For ARTI stove users, the economy in cooking turned out to be attractive; charcoal costs Rs 7 a kg and a family of five can get a boiled and steamed Indian meal by using just 100 gm of ARTI pellets. For corner chaiwalla, it works out still cheaper. Dr Karve and ARTI’s achievements have been impressive indeed, having been internationally recognised by Ashden Awards and nationally applauded. Besides developing renewable energy resources from agricultural waste, the institute has pioneered nursery techniques to make seeds develop faster, and helped farmers tackle adverse weather conditions. In Dr Karve’s words: “Farmers lose out on valuable time if they start sowing operations after the monsoon season settles in. If they can sow the seeds in a nursery before the monsoon starts and transplant them once the season is in full swing, they can enhance their produced significantly”. ARTI has developed low-cost, high-humidity chambers to allow seeds to grow better. It has also developed a drip-irrigation technique that prevents water wastage and a transportable wheelbarrow, a low-cost tank and a bakery — all with the sole purpose of helping villagers. Dr Karve also developed a compact biogas system that uses starchy or
sugary feedstock like waste of grain flour, spoilt grain, non-edible seeds, green leaves, kitchen waste and leftover food. According to him, 2 kg of feedstock produces about 500 g of methane, and the reaction is completed within 24 hours. The conventional biogas systems, using cattle dung and sewerage, use about 40 kg feedstock to produce the same quantity of methane, and require about 40 days to complete the reaction. Thus, from the point of view of conversion of feedstock into methane, the system developed by Dr Karve is 20 times as efficient as the conventional system, and as regards the reaction time, it is 40 times as efficient. Overall, the new system is 800 times as efficient as the conventional biogas system. Dr Karve holds doctorate in Botany from a German university. After many positions of employment, he finally gravitated to his true love — making science and technology solve India’s rural problems. He is great grand son of Bharat Ratna Dhondo Keshava Karve, better known as Maharishi Karve. The legendary Karve died in 1962 at the age of
104.
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— R.K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which bagged the — Doris Lessing, British writer, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature True wealth lies in what you give to society and to the country, the real assets that you build, the institutions you nurture and the contribution you make to all-round prosperity. The money you accumulate merely gives you an opportunity to make a difference. — Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani After Javed and Gulzar saheb, there was a dearth of talent. But lyricists like Jaideep Sahni and Prasoon Joshi have brought freshness, contemporary language and life to their songs. — Swanand Kirkire, lyricist When I get angry, I either lock up myself in a room or just go for a long walk alone. It helps me to cool off. — Mona Singh, actress I have films lined up, which I had to put on the backburner because of my book, Romancing with Life. Now that it is out, I will go back to my films. — Dev Anand After the Tsunami, my attitude to life and career has changed. Today I am a totally different person. When you see death so closely, you realise what frivolous lives we lead. — Preity Zinta — Vishwanathan Anand, chess wizard — Shah Rukh Khan, when asked what he was worth since actors now charge up to Rs 16 crore a film
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Imperative of police reforms London
is abuzz with various foreign ministers and permanent representatives from across the Commonwealth coming to deliberate on what gets into the communiqués of the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Meeting this November (CHOGM) in Kampala. The process of creating these communiqués is long drawn and organic. Issues bubble up from the earlier meetings in the two years between CHOGMs and also from the continuum of work developed from mandates given to the Commonwealth Secretariat by the Heads of State at earlier CHOGMS. Past mandates have included promoting and mainstreaming women’s rights into the work of the Secretariat, helping ensure better election practices, raising awareness of HIV/AIDs, leading on debt forgiveness, getting reports back on progress on the Millennium Development Goals and assisting with constitution making. What the communiqués say decides future work at the Secretariat. After governments have indicated their priorities and current concerns, a consensus document goes to the Heads of State at their biennial meeting for finalisation. Secretariat officials whose full time job this is, countries that contribute the most to the Commonwealth’s coffers, the host country -- this time Uganda -- and the more populous nations like India and Nigeria make the running. The potential for taking real action makes the Commonwealth’s meetings a party worth attending in the hope that some, at least, of the promise will be realised. Last time around Mugabe’s nervousness at being named and shamed for his terrible overlordship of 12 million of his countrymen forced him to pre-empt censure by pulling out of the association rather than face the discredit of being suspended. This time around, prior to the November meet General Musharraf, will be careful to doff his general’s uniform as promised for something at least that looks like the fig leaf of democratic functioning -- even if Fiji, Maldives and Bangladesh hang on to their coloured exercises in democratic governance. Because the Commonwealth works like a club of leaders acting through consensus, it is a very safe space for officials and governments to go beyond the posturing and really get to grips with the issues of the day. Barring a handful of very affluent countries, the Commonwealth is essentially an association of poor countries where over half the population of near 1.4 billion lives on less than $2 a day. These people need real solutions and not rhetoric. The people know what is wrong. One big problem in most Commonwealth countries is policing. Every year very few nations from Antigua to Zambia -- and all the other letters of the alphabet in between -- escape the ignominy of being cited for abusive, violent, discriminatory and corrupt policing. Millions experience it everyday. They all know that most police forces need a total overhaul. Governments know how to do it: re-order policing; re-examine how it is actually done on the ground; make recruitment fair, training better, management result oriented, provide reasonable resources, and be strong in monitoring performance and punishing the guilty. But the most important project is to make police more accountable to law and less subservient, less obsequious to those momentarily in power and to create systems where the policy is laid down by government and operational responsibility for ensuring the safety and security of the population at large is in the hands of the police leadership. In other words, re-envision police establishments so that they run like essential services for the population much like a fire service or the post office and not like the coercive force of some foreign power. That old way of policing belongs to colonial times. It should not be the way our democratic governments use police. Keeping to those past values and systems is an admission of our inability to be free from the worst influences of that time and to shame ourselves as sovereign nations. Many excuses are put forward for stalling reforms of essential systems. The issue of lack of resources is always a favourite. Never mind the fact that the reform of management practice does not inevitably require or necessitate additional funding. There is, as well, a need to examine if present resources are really well spent and could not be more logically allocated to go further than present wasteful ways allow. Equally, it is more than probable that unreformed policing costs the state and its people much more through significantly impeding internal development, foreign investment and consequent prosperity. Another crucial reason for looking at a new type of policing is the truth that unreformed policing has proved that it cannot prevent or reduce crime or calm fears about the threat from terrorism. Effective policing holds the key to good governance which is an important Commonwealth concern. The Commonwealth could make a start by agreeing to bring together a group of experts to help it lay down a new vision of policing. The group could lay down what a new kind of policing should look like; what principles should guide this policing and how this can be brought about given that countries are struggling for capacity and resources. It could mandate the kind of future technical help the Commonwealth can provide its members so that the process of police reforms is well informed and hastened. There is very good practice on policing in the Commonwealth. Governments will not have to reinvent the wheel, but with a little help from their friends can tap into and adapt experiences of those that have gone some way toward making improvements. For instance, Nigeria has designed a very strong national police accountability mechanism. South Africa has an excellent method for evaluating police performance. The Australians and the UK are constantly struggling to defeat institutional racism and improve policing in multi-ethnic communities. New Zealand is involved in reviewing its police functioning. The experience of police reform in Northern Ireland is a lesson in creating confidence in minority groups after years of head to head conflict and the turn around of the Hong Kong police has lessons to offer on drastically reducing corruption. Pakistan’s experiments in local control over local policing and, India’s Supreme Court orders seeking to guide the reforms process are all at the service of the Commonwealth’s membership if it is willing to listen. As the summit is in Kampala, African heads need to lead on issues of concern to the continent and not leave it to others to finger point. It’s not always easy, but someone has to take a deep breath and take the first step. The writer is Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi
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Strategy to check chemical pollution Chemical
pollution, which includes pesticides, is taking its toll of the human health in Punjab. Supplementing the nutrients and the control of pest diseases and weeds is important to ensure agricultural production under intensive and irrigated cropping conditions. After a critical evaluation by scientists, various agrochemicals as fertiliser or pesticides and weedicides are recommended the world over. The problem is that once commercialised, the market gets flooded with a spate of brands, approved and unapproved. As a result, the unscrupulous marketing pushes the sales like any other consumer commodity. Stories are fabricated to lure the farmer to buy and use these. Instead of the need-based use of pesticides, an aggressively compulsive approach is being made. This must be corrected and addressed by the government through policy intervention. Agriculture is inherently predisposed to diseases and pests. In addition, these organisms thrive better in the moist and humid field conditions. Punjab’s irrigated agro-ecology is thus more conducive to encouraging the higher populations of the pests and consequently, more disease and higher concerns to protect the crop. The application of pesticides is need-based. The doses and protocols of application recommended are strictly as per the norms so that no residual effect is there. But these norms collapse when the traders recommend this and the users do not adhere to the safety protocols. While pesti-cide is for killing pest, weedi-cide is for killing weeds; any chemical being used to kill, basically being poisonous, is bound to adversely affect all living beings when used indiscriminately. Huge amounts of poisonous chemicals are also released as industrial waste of diverse nature. It is released and dumped into the water bodies or accumulated as spots. Voluminous of city fluid waste enters the sewerage ducts and is released in the canals and rivers from where it enters the fields when used as irrigation water. In addition, massive doses of pesticides are being put at the site wherever concrete construction activities are initiated to ensure that these are termite-free. In addition, substantial use of the pesticides is being done to protect the commercially commodities from storage losses stores and even to maintain the households. All this adds to the load of toxic carcinogens to the environment, which enter the living systems directly or through the drinking water and the food chain. The use of protective gear while using pesticides is also rare and is not part of our work culture. Workers and others are directly exposed when pesticides are being sprayed. The remedy lies in the discretion and only need-based use of pesticides and a deep concern to keep the environment clean. The callous and indiscriminate use of pesticides must stop. Release of pollutants and spot contamination by the industry and the ever-expanding urban habitations must also stop for arresting the current degeneration in human and environmental health. It is time for some regulation on off the shelf sale of pesticides and a more vigilant pollution watch strategy. The pesticide management strategy in the agricultural farms should be only an alternative when other methods become ineffective. Whenever use of pesticide is warranted, it should be based on a warning system. Currently, there is enough epidemiological data available and models have been developed to initiate the warning systems to forecast the conditions favouring the build up and damage by pests. A deep penetrating network of weather forecast stations and farm advisory services based on real time observations of the on-farm conditions ought to be initiated to prevent the misuse. These are no ordinary chemicals but poison. Their indiscriminate use will not only affect the biosphere deleteriously but also reduce their efficacy as the target organisms tend to acquire resistance. All this call for higher doses and use of more chemicals. Similarly, the use of inappropriate doses and quantity of spray will also make their use ineffective in due course of time. Hence only “expert monitored” application of pesticides should be done. An appropriate support system to deliver this is the need of the
hour. The writer is Professor & Head, Department of Plant Pathology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
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On Record
Former
Chief Justice of India Justice S. Rajendra Babu took over as the fifth Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission on April 2. He has delivered several landmark judgments in the Supreme Court in civil, criminal, constitutional, environmental and taxation matters besides corporate law and intellectual property matters. He says that the Supreme Court ought to be credited for giving a sense of direction to the human rights movement. “Our duty is to monitor and ensure that the government and its agencies implement these laws appropriately”, he says in an interview to The Sunday Tribune. Excerpts: Q: Almost a dozen states still don’t have the Human Rights Commission. Why? A: I have got concurrent jurisdiction. It is for the states to set up HRCs. Even those which have these don’t have adequate infrastructure. UP has the highest number of human rights violations followed by Delhi and Bihar. The UP HRC in Allahabad does not have a chairperson for sometime. Delhi and Bihar don’t have HRCs. A chairperson is yet to be appointed in the Chhattisgarh HRC. The Gujarat HRC is not fully constituted. The Karnataka HRC has a chairperson and two members but no infrastructure. The Maharashtra HRC is not fully functional. Q: What is your position on death penalty? A:
We don’t take any formal position on this. We have to apply the law. In matters like bonded labour, atrocities against the SC/ST or domestic violence against women, we make recommendations but not in the policy of criminal law. The death penalty should be given if the exigency of the case demands it. After all, a person who died also had human rights. The whole fabric of democracy is shaken in a case like the terrorist attack on Parliament. And then where does the question of clemency arise? In my career of about 20 years as High Court and Supreme Court Judge, I have not given death sentence to anyone. In some cases, I reduced the sentence to life imprisonment. It is a difficult area. In the Supreme Court judgement in the Bachan Singh case, the five-member bench upheld the law. Justice Bhagwati gave a dissenting judgement. The majority view is that as a matter of legislative policy, death sentence can be given but it will be exercised only in the rarest of the rare cases. They set out certain parameters such as the heinousness of the crime, the brutality of the murder and the implication of the judgement on society and whether the accused is incorrigible. Following the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, some states there have reintroduced death penalty. Q: India has not yet invited the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture as it has not ratified the UN Convention against Torture. A: India is a signatory to this but has not ratified it. We have recommended the government to ratify it. The US has also not ratified it. Once it is ratified, people will be able to raise issues related to torture under the International Covenant on Torture. Unless it is ratified, cases of torture cannot be taken up in the international court. Q: What about police firing on democratic agitations? A: Firing will come as a defence when there is violence against the police. If there is a peaceful demonstration, it should be tolerated. Voices of dissent are the strength of democracy. Peaceful demonstrations should not be crushed the way they are being crushed presently in Myanmar. Q: In Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East, people are suffering because the Army enjoys special powers. A: Section 19 of the Protection of Human Rights Act enables us to take suo motu cognisance or act on complaints of individuals or NGOs about excesses committed by the armed forces. We can call for a report from the Defence Ministry and also gather information from our investigation division. We continue to get cases from the northern part of Assam about killing of innocent persons, rape of women and ravaging of villages by the Army. Wherever there is authority, there is misuse. Such things should not be allowed to happen. The Army should observe human rights unless they are in warfare or combat. Q: Cases of lynching are on the rise. Why? A:
Who can tolerate people taking the law into their own hands? It is unacceptable and we have issued notices to some state governments on cases of
lynching.
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Large-scale
IT sounds strange but it is true. Cheap fuel can be produced from sugarcane leaves. These leaves have no nutritional value and
are difficult to decompose. So, they are to be simply burnt, causing pollution. Put these leaves in a container with a lid and burn
them. Starved off oxygen, the leaves will crumble, yielding charcoal powder. 
Global peace and stability will be threatened by climate change. There are people who are not even equipped to deal with normal vagaries of weather, let alone serious changes in climate. Any movement of population would completely break down the social fabric and lead to disharmony.
I had forgotten about it, actually. My name has been on the short list for such a long time. This has been going on for something like 40 years. You can’t go on getting excited every year about this. There are limits to getting excited finally.
I agree that India doesn’t have a sporting culture, but the chess scene is pretty healthy. There are many athletes in other sports who are doing quite well.
Tailpiece: I am priceless! I sell myself for endorsements. I dance at weddings, birthday parties. But movies I do out of
love.