Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has unequivocally told police officers that his government is against mindless application of harsh laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Such stringent laws, including the Kerala Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act (KAPA), should be applied sparingly and, if needed be, only with due diligence and proper introspection. Ensnaring politicians in KAPA was not the government’s policy.
Mr. Vijayan spent one hour here on Saturday with law enforcers from three districts to drive home the blueprint for what he has often publicly termed as a pro-citizen policing strategy.
Ideally, the scheme involved close interaction with communities with special accent on the indigent and socially backward. The closed-door session seemed to have been spurred by public criticism that Kerala was increasingly becoming a police State in the wake of the controversial Maoist killings at Nilambur last year.
The forcible removal of Jishnu Pranoy’s protesting mother, magnified many times on television, and the much-publicised UAPA arrests of writer Kamal C. Chavara and social activist Nadir had also not augured well for the government’s public image.
The Chief Minister identified the generally brusque behaviour of traffic regulators towards motorists as one aspect of police conduct that caused public ire. The police should be above provocation. Law enforcers should use force cautiously and, if necessary, minimally.
They should rise above petty considerations such as caste and community and be uniformly fair to all. The rich and the poor should get equal treatment at police stations.
The force should be alert against the inflow of spirit, drugs, and contraband liquor. Special units should be raised to track and rescue runaways and kidnapped children. Police women should visit local bodies to understand neighbourhood issues. State Police Chief Loknath Behera and Chief Minister’s police advisor Raman Sreevastava were present.
