In a bid to empower the aggrieved public, the police department plans to set up a cells where complainants can register their complaint if a police station does not register it. According to director and inspector general of police (DGP) Ajay Kumar Singh, the system will be functional in a fortnight.
The arrangement is in view of instances of officers at police stations turning away complainants, refusing to register their complaints. The district police offices and the police commissioner’s offices in the state will have these cells. Complainants who have been turned away can approach the special officer in these cells and register their complaint and obtain a copy of the first information report.(FIR).
Ajaykumar told reporters here on Wednesday, said despite efforts to improve police-public relations -the experience of the complainants at the police stations was not good.
“There are instances of station house officers on duty refusing to register complaints even when they were genuine. We are putting up boards outside each police station giving the telephoneôcell numbers of the immediate superior officers. The complainants whose grievances are not heard at the police station can call up the numbers,” the DGP said. In district headquarters hoardings displaying the phone numbers of SP, DIG, IGP and DGP will be installed at important junctions.
He said the state had made a budgetary allocation of Rs 20 crore to the police department under a separate head for meeting the expenses of transport, food and stationary during investigation. Hitherto, policemen were forced either to spend from their own pocket or collect it from the complainants. Now that problem will not exist,” he said. So far the department has released Rs 10 crore for the purpose.
To improve patrolling, a new beat system would be introduced where police personnel, including officers would be allotted a permanent beat. The policeman will establish contact with 20-25 people in his beat and interact with them to track happenings in the area. “This system will enable police personnel concerned to know the area well besides fixing the responsibility,” he said.
Replying to a question he said there are 7,000 vacancies for police constables in the state and 4,000 would be recruited immediately.
The DGP also said that the Police Establishment Board (PEB) in Karnataka was working well and the government had been supportive of the PEB. The PEB aims to free the police force from political intervention in transfers and promotions of police officers right from the DGP to sub inspectors.