Police stations nationwide will be graded on the basis of their performance, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told The Hindu in an interview on Tuesday.
Mr. Singh, who spoke at length on the steps that his Ministry has taken to improve policing, said: “Police stations should be graded on the basis of their performance. How they have performed on various parameters. The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) has developed parameters on which the police stations would be graded, and we have sent the proposal to the States for their suggestions.”
The Minister said a new concept of “tourism police” was being considered.
“We are raising a new police force for tourism and will provide it training, The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has prepared a concept paper, and it is being examined in the Ministry,” Mr. Singh said.
For the first time, a database of 20 lakh policemen was created, he said.
“A new thing which started this year is the exchange of marching contingents of the State police forces during the Republic Day parade. So far, 21 States have exchanged marching contingents with one another,” he said.
Mr. Singh said the Ministry was looking to replicate the meeting of the Directors-General of Police (DGP) at the State level, involving senior police officers of the State.
Task force on technologyA new task force on “technology,” comprising police officers from each State, was constituted, and it would soon begin its work.
“We will be collating the best practices followed by the police in each State and will send advisories to other States to follow the model. This is being done so that the States can know about the best available model for policing,” Mr. Singh said.
Improving probe methodsHe said ruled had been framed to improve investigation techniques of the police. “Capabilities like fingerprint scan is being upgraded for police stations and steps are also being taken to check cybercrimes,” he said.
All seven Union Territories, which report directly to the Ministry, had already implemented the 33 per cent reservation for women in the police forces.
“Only Puducherry had some doubts, and it had sent a letter to the Ministry asking how it could go ahead with the reservation without the approval of the Union Public Service Commission. We told them that they could do it,” Mr. Singh added.
