How easy is it to pronounce two words,”Friendly Police”,because it doesn’t require any accountability,credibility and integrity.But,to really convert these words into action requires honesty with your profession,to become a man of your word,need to take strong and effective decisions and political will to keep people’s interest first rather than fulfilling selfish self-interest in politics.

Lucknow Police have started a programme named ‘Jansahyog’,by putting police friendly mobile on roads.Now,police friendly mobile having modified bikes will patrol the areas from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm and would manage the traffic problems,catching chain snatchers and other works related to policing.It’s a good initiative taken by DIG,Lucknow to mobilize police personnels in an organized way with an effort of covering very small areas.But,I would like to raise some serious questions regarding the concept of creating this kind of force.First,there is a big difference between managing traffic and resolving law and order related issues.If this police friendly mobile is entrusted with a task of catching chain snatchers,then it is essential to deploy more than 200 squads in the entire city of Lucknow and resolving robbery cases requires an extraordinary skills and approach.But,if this force is entrusted with the task of managing traffic problems,then the nature of work is totally different.Second,by managing only traffic problems or catching chain snatchers,would not make police friendly,unless and until,the whole system of police functioning at the level of police stations would be overhauled.Third,who’s going to monitor them? If monitoring would be done at the level of DIG,then we can’t expect better results,because we have seen in the past,that many projects have been started at the level of senior officers,but after sometime the implementation part of the project get the lowest place in the priority list of that officer.So,instead of starting new projects every month,bring a significant change in the entire system and most importantly fix the accountability of IPS Officers.

State Government is making the issue of police reforms complicated day by day by introducing new provisions in the rule book of police functioning,for the purpose of gaining political interest.Political evil is the biggest sinner behind every move,which makes police organization corrupt and irresponsible.If police is a strategic asset and means of achieving political ambitions for a ruling party,then I would like to urge the state government to declare the police organization as a private entity of political bosses .

The law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh is getting deteriorated,because of two major factors,one is the lack of vision in our government and police administration and other is the political patronage being given  to some officers on the basis of caste.Engaging large number of police personnels in investigating the corruption cases of previous government should not be a sole objective of this government.

The irresponsible statement given by the DIG of Saharanpur, clearly reveals the  ideology and  frustration of police in finding the missing girls of poor and deprived families.On Tuesday,in a law and order review meeting,SP of Sant Kabir Nagar reportedly said that he was fed up of cases that involved missing girls and he asked his fellow cops that “Should we catch thieves or girls?” If an officer of the rank of SP or DIG is giving this kind of immature remarks,then what should we expect of their fellow policemen? Actually,the crux of the matter is that the state government has not separated the work of  law and order and investigation matters.Today,police has to do every kind of work,ranging from maintaining law and order,controlling crime,investigating criminal matters,regulating traffic and so on.Undoubtedly,the role and responsibilities of police has been increased manifold in the 21^st century.People’s expectations and aspirations to receive meaningful answers and get impartial justice on the part of investigation,is legitimate,but on the other hand,government too has the responsibility of looking into the structural problem exist in the police organization.Uttar Pradesh government’s biggest failure is the continuous ignorance of problems exist in the police administration.To manage the state of 20 crore people and crime of heinous nature,government needs to understand the kind of attention which it should pay to improve the overall structure of police organization and for that Chief Minister and top police officials needs to spend various nights in making a comprehensive policy to organize the police administration in an effective and efficient way.

More and more transfers of police officers is the simplest way of claiming seriousness about making police administration effective and efficient,but did the Uttar Pradesh Government move beyond the transfer policy for making police administration more closer to a common man? Did the Uttar Pradesh Government think about inducting ethical and disciplinary values in a policeman through the means of training? There is a need of developing the model of decentralized leadership in the police administration and that would come through focussing on the development of police stations.As far as the development and relevance of police stations will be ignored by the state government,no significant change would be realized in the core policing functions.

It seems to make no sense that now policeman will blow whistle in every half-an-hour during the time of patrolling and every policeman must carry a whistle with him.When police vehicles are equipped with siren,then what is the need of blowing whistles? I am unable to understand what kind of planning lead to an annoucement of such orders by DIG,Lucknow?

We hear some debates on the issue of police reforms on news channels,two or three times in a year,because this issue is being discussed on two counts;One,when we have a Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security and second,when any terrorist attack has been made on India’s soil.But,if we talk about people,then you would not hear any kind of discussion in public on the issue of police reforms,which is the most lacking part in moving forward on the path of bringing police reforms in the state.When any person comes in contact with a policeman,then he says that policemen don’t know how to behave? Policemen are used to ask for bribe.Policemen do not perform their duty seriously and honestly.Policemen are more worse than goons,and so on,but that person would never ever think about the reason behind all these bad deeds,which a policeman does in his life.I agree that there are so many initiatives need to be taken on the part of state government and police administration,but unless and until,state government do not understand the sentiments and feelings of people,that they desperately need to see the implementation of police reforms in the state,then how can we expect from the state government to include the issue of police reforms in its priorities.

The issue of police reforms has become an asset of reluctance and arrogance.

Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security has become only a meeting of demands and mistrust.Neither Center wants to take one step backwards,nor the states want to move one step forward.Why doesn’t the Chief Minister holds a strategic view about the issue of police reforms? We have incorporated every tradition in our culture,but when will we develop a kind of security culture,in which police reforms would share a large space to secure the strategic interests of our country?