Punjab Govt gives nod to recruit 1200 Jail Staff, 2000 Police Personnel to improve law and order in state

NewsBharati    07-Nov-2017
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Chandigarh, November 7: In order to further strengthen law and order function in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh led government has ordered immediate steps to fill the backlog of vacancies in police department including the prisons.

 

Notably, the decisions constitute a part of the series of reforms initiated by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to infuse new energy in the police force and improve the law and order situation in the state. CM Amarinder Singh has also decided to separate the investigation duties of the police from their law and order function in order to further strengthen policing in the state and ensure proper probe in heinous cases of crime.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has also issued categorical instructions to the Home Department to start the recruitment process on the urgent basis and also to take up the matter of separation of duties on priority and complete the process by November 30.

With no recruitment has taken place in the Prisons department for a long time, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who is also the state home minister, has now put the filling of vacancies in jails on the top of the agenda for his department. He has ordered recruitment of 1200 jail staff members in a bid to further tighten the noose around the criminals and gangsters languishing in jails, amid reports that some of them were continuing to operate from within the confines of the prisons.

Captain Amarinder had also approved recruitment of 2000 police constables in the Punjab Police in the current year, followed by an equal number to be recruited every year, for the next four years. He has also ordered the appointment of constables and sub-inspectors in the intelligence wing to ensure that the department is fully geared to meet the new challenges posed by radicals and criminal gangs in the state.

The Chief Minister while chairing a law and order meeting of top police officials two days back, stressed the need to keep the police force of the sensitive border state always up to date in terms of manpower and equipment. The absence of a proper policy to induct personnel in the police ranks on a regular basis had, over the years, adversely impacted the effectiveness of the police forces, he was told at the meeting.

The Chief Minister has also directed immediate steps to complete the formalities and process, by November 30, 2017, for the separation of Investigation and Law & Order duties, along with the creation of separate cadres. Under the new system, separate Investigation Units (IUs) and Pairvi Units (PUs) have been envisaged up to the level of Police Stations. While the IUs would be solely dedicated to serious and heinous crimes to ensure that the investigation of such cases is completed in a time-bound manner, the Pairvi Units will ensure proper presentation and contesting of criminal cases before the trial courts.

The move is prompted by the need to keep the function of Investigation separate from Law & Order duties so that investigation of heinous crimes, in particular, does not get hindered due any urgency in law and order duties. The move will also enable smooth collection of credible evidence by providing the IO with professional and high-level expertise in the same.

It has been decided that the IUs will be properly monitored to ascertain if the investigation in a particular case is being carried out in a proper manner or not. The separation of the two functions will also help in ensuring high conviction rate by infusing professionalism in an investigation, and will also create a better police-public interface, said the spokesperson.

BACKGROUND:

At present, the conviction rate in heinous cases such as rape, kidnapping/abduction, robbery and dacoity is in the range of 15-30%, while the overall conviction rate for all crimes, including those under the Excise Act as well as minor cases, stands at around 49.5%. With the creation of a separate IU, this is expected to go up significantly. The separation of duties is also in line with a Supreme Court directive and Punjab & Haryana High Court’s orders in this regard.