From increasing incidents of terror-related activity to attacks against the police themselves, the new DGP of Uttar Pradesh, Sulkhan Singh lists the challenges facing the force and measures to combat them.
What are the challenges that confront the DGP of a State like Uttar Pradesh?
Being a populous State, it has all the problems multiplied by a large factor. Since it is densely populated, it has a lot of public order issues. Then, of late, it has been sort of sensitive from the point of view of terrorist activities.
Any reasons for it?
I don't see any particular reason. But there have been certain [terror] incidents and modules. We have to be alert to it. Then this state has had several riots of a communal nature. That makes it sensitive to communal propensity. We have to always be on our guard.
You are also the senior-most IPS in UP. You hail from the critical area of Bundelkhand and were deputed in the Terai region during the period of Khalistani-insurgency. How have the dynamics of crime changed in UP over the course of your career? If you take aside terrorist activities, violent crime is decreasing. For the last 25 years there has been s massive decline in murders, to the tune of around 40 per cent. This is a significant pointer: that violent crimes are decreasing while financial, fraudulent and other such devious crimes are increasing at a fast pace. Particularly in the days of Internet monetary transactions, a lot of fraudulent activities are taking place on the web, which is today has a virtual world of its own. Cyber crimes are economical, highly paying and the comparatively risks are less. To tackle this, we have developed a special capability in UP. We are also building capacity for training in cyber investigations to our sub inspectors and deputy sub inspectors so that we can keep pace with growing crime in cyber space. Plus, cyber space is serving as a sort of an operative ground for violent criminal activities like organized crime and terrorist activity. Cyber space is not only a space for soft crimes but also a place to facilitate and plan hardcore violent crimes.
Talking of crimes, there have been many crimes against and attacks on policemen in U.P. For instance, the recent case in Saharanpur where the SSP himself was targeted. Is the safety of police personnel a concern?
That is a challenge to police. Public order is a serious issue. But police are adequately safe here. They are trained to be tactically intelligent. We are equipped to face such situations and we take reasonable care. There is no point why we should not feel safe.
You have instructed your officers to ensure that Anti-Romeo Squads use body cameras.
Not only Anti-Romeo Squads, I have asked them to ensure that they use body cameras during all public activities in particular while dealing with sensitive groups. It saves you from so many human rights issues and wild allegations.
You have also instructed police to spend more time in offices addressing public grievances. On a related note, last year a number of police personnel in the state fell victim to diseases like dengue. Do you have any steps to tackle problem of hygiene in police stations?
Yes. Where a large number of people stay, community living, hygiene will be an issue. We have already issues instructions to provide safe water by installing RO plants. That coolers must be properly attended too, stale water must not be there...disinfectants should be used so that mosquitoes do not thrive there. Water should not be allowed to collect in and around living areas.
Drains and septic tanks must be cleaned and cleared. We already have age-old precautions for it. As per the drill, the SSP takes a round of the police lines and living quarters every Friday while the ASP does it on Tuesdays. Somehow, certain things go out of use and things start deteriorating.
Many of the promises in the ruling party BJP’s election manifesto deal with the police and law and order. Is the police under pressure to perform?
Police is definitely under pressure. Law and order is a big issue for them. The people and media both expect the police to do well. That also creates pressure. There is pressure from inside too, to do good work. We hope to come out well.
Observers feel that groups affiliated to the ideology of the ruling party are emboldened after the elections and that has created a sense of insecurity among certain sections, in particular Muslims and Dalits.
I have assured everybody that whatever groups or organisations there are, they will not be allowed to take law into their hands. I can assure people strict action will be taken on all issues.
Any plan of action to tackle vigilantism in the name of gau rakshaks and groups engaging in moral policing?
No particular plan of action is required. If it is a crime, it will be dealt with. It is a public order issue.
The previous government was accused by the BJP of favouring one caste and party members while appointing station officers. You think that is a reality? And is there any plan to deal with that?
I do not have any study on that. I was not part of mainstream policing then so I cannot say anything about that.
One of your first instructions to your officers was to ensure that FIRs be lodged under any condition. Why are FIRs not lodged easily in U.P.?
There has been at certain times pressure that if crime registration increases the station officer is punished. Senior officers were also at times questioned as to why such things happens [high rate of crime recording]. Maybe we want to gloss over it but crime in general in a developing society cannot be eliminated. Somehow we try to eliminate crime by not recording it. That is not fair. So I emphasize that all crime must be scrupulously recorded. Does not matter if the rate goes up. That will give you the correct picture of the field. Then only you can take certain steps. If burglaries happen but they are not recorded, how will you take preventive steps? You would not know the spatial distribution of the crime. There is something called a crime mapping, after which we then try to decipher what would be the possible reasons for it. Everything starts from the stage of recording. If you don't record it, you can do nothing about it. It is difficult to investigate a burglary but easy to investigate 10 burglaries. Then you can also trace the line.
You have also spoke about bringing attitudinal changes among police personnel. [Mr. Singh was previously DG of U.P. Police Training Department.]
We have broken our training components into three parts: knowledge, skill and attitude. Earlier, training was mostly knowledge-oriented. There was a pedagogy in teaching about law. We have introduced skill training where we actually ask them to carry out certain tasks. For instance, we ask them to make a panchayat nama on a dummy. Similarly, we ask them to write actual case diaries, or make memos of search, arrest or seizure, or take part in actual picketing. This is for that first time we have introduced practicals in training. Then there are the attitudinal changes, where we request social sciences professors, retired people or eminent speakers to hold motivational sessions and provide them with a democratic and civilised attitude. Policing is a harsh job. It can never be a pleasant job. But it can be made less unpleasant.
Do you think indiscipline has been a problem for U.P. police? It has often been described as notorious and unruly, and been accused of certain human rights violations.
On the human rights front, I would like to clarify. It is simply because of our size we have more number of complaints. If we take them per life of population, we are not the worst. Since we are the most populous and way ahead of other States, there are more number of complaints.
Does the shortage of sanctioned staff make your job tougher?
In 2008, more than two lakh personnel were sanctioned at one go. We still have more than a lakh vacancies. We have a plan to fill up the vacancies plus the attrition in next four years.
Many police officers have been transferred after your appointment. Should we expect more in the coming days?
Maybe some more. It is a government decision. I am not authorized to do that. I will do my own transfers.
