Welfare of police personnel a priority: Sonowal

Streamlining duty hours and the welfare of police personnel should be the "utmost priority" for everyone, Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said here today.
Speaking during the inauguration of the 'International Police Expo' at Pragati Maidan here, the Minister said the intelligence gathering setup of police forces should be strengthened so the country can reduce the number of policemen on ground and lessen use of arms and weapons.
"The police of today may have some shortcomings but there are also ways of removing these shortcomings. One negative news about police runs for long time but hundreds of good things about police do not get that attention.

"The duty hours of the police are not known to the society resulting in their constant physical and mental stress affecting their efficiency. It should be an utmost priority for the police of any nation to streamline the duty hours and good condition and welfare activities (for the men in uniform)," he said.
In my opinion, Sonowal said, sophisticated weapons are required in police forces but the success in "ensuing security of people depends on quality intelligence."
"The police force needs to lay more importance on intelligence and in my view, there would be minimum need of arms and armed personnel if intelligence is stronger," he said.

The Minister also invoked the speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the recent conference of Directors General of Police and Inspectors General of Police in Guwahati where he had asked the police and security establishment to chronicle the achievements and feats of valour of these men and women in 'khaki'.
"Proper documentation of achievements of police personnel from the constable-level to senior level officers should to be made and circulated on regular basis through various media and mode of communication.
"I would suggest we publish the story of martyrs and develop textbooks for use in training of police personnel in their respective state academies. This will motivate new recruits and this should be done in all the languages. The Prime Minister had also said so," he said.