The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Letters to the Editor

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Police force needs to evolve

The Punjab police is infamous for rough handling of common masses and offenders, rather than using humane and professional methods of crowd control and policing (editorial ‘Police assaulting women’, March 6). With the terrorism era long over, the Punjab police has still not come to terms with day-to-day regular policing tasks to maintain law and order.

Increasing crime against women in rate and proportion shows the inadequate level of training, preparedness, lack of human values and the low quality of human resource in our police force. Wrong policing methods have become a constant source of humiliation for the ruling elite.

Thanks to information technology, judicial activism and a hyperactive media, many unsavoury incidents have been brought into public domain.

If a crowd is tackled well by sincere police officials, nine out of ten times the crowd will listen, sometimes they just want to be heard, it is a very basic right to be heard by powers-that-be who can redress their grievances .

The government needs to be proactive in perceiving future policing requirements and modify police training accordingly to sensitise the new recruits as well as re-train the old guard.

The police needs to study changing patterns of crime, foresee situations turning ugly and sensitise the police force till enough women police personnel are ready.

We need a police force that is humane, modest, communicative, can segregate first time offenders from hardcore criminals, can employ negotiators, counsellers, sociologists and scientific methods to tackle varied issues like mob violence, strikes, protests, peaceful demonstrations, dharnas, etc.

Lt-Col J S Gill (retd), Via e-mail

We should not hesitate in taking lessons from wherever we can, just as we can learn basic policing from the US police force. During my first visit to New York , I erroneously dialed 911 instead of India's country code 91. On realising my folly, I disconnected the call in a flash of a second. The police officers reached my doorstep in just 4 minutes after the call to enquire if everything was fine with me. The response time of 4-5 minutes in a busy place like New York is worth appreciating.

KALPNA SHARMA, via e-mail

III

In advanced foreign countries not even a single crime goes unpunished and criminals are penalised for every small or big crime. Fear of law is writ large there. Singapore is one of the most disciplined countries, we should learn to control crime from them.

We, Indians seem to have sacrificed every other human value at the altar of money ( VK Kapoor’s middle ‘Constant change’, March 6). Crime and punishment go hand in hand. In India, the problem is that criminals are not being adequately punished. Petty crimes are not even considered worth punishing. Petty criminals should be made to shell out hefty fines on the spot and in cash.

BS BASSI, Ambala Cantt

Deprivation of benefits

There being a provision in the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 to provide pension to the members of panchayat samitis and zila parishads of Punjab, the Punjab government had decided in 1995 to grant pensionary benefit to them. Intimation of this decision was conveyed to all the concerned officials.

The Punjab government delayed the matter for about four years and introduced the pension scheme w.e.f from 1.7.99 after framing the pension rules, instead of implementing the scheme w.e.f. 11.5.95 as per earlier decision of the government. Thus, due to undue delay by the government, about three hundred employees who retired in between 11.5.95 to 30.6.99 have been deprived of pensionary benefit for no fault of theirs.

The employees have suffered a monetary loss due to discriminatory, unjustified and delayed action of the government. The Punjab government should reconsider the matter sympathetically and take necessary action to implement the pension scheme w.e.f 11.5.1995 as per their decision.

KARNAIL SINGH, Bathinda

Focus on infrastructure
Your editorial “Chidambram shuns populism’’ (The Tribune, March 1) rightly highlights the areas where the problem lies — bottlenecks choking the infrastructural growth. A good budget details four attributes — GDP growth, eradication of poverty, population control and human development index. The budget speech this year only talks of the GDP growth which came down to 4.5 per cent during the September-December quarter. Economic growth largely depends upon infrastructure projects and FDI. FDI further depends upon investment sentiment prevalent in the country which has evaporated long back.

Look at the story of POSCO in Orissa. Execution of infrastructure projects has been handicapped by clearances delayed or withheld by Ministry of Forest and Environment, Government of India. Non-clearance of the Renuka dam project in HP till now is a telling example. Selection of the right kind of infrastructure projects is another big issue for spurring the GDP growth. The need of the hour is to develop projects in the fields of hydro-power, solar energy, sanitation exploration of oil, increased production of coal and expansion of the railway network .There is nothing in the budget to catalyze growth in these important areas.
Ram Niwas Malik, Engineer-in-Chief (retd), Gurgaon