BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh police is suffering from shortage of vehicles, particularly motorcycles, the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has revealed.
The report tabled before the State assembly on Friday revealed that in 39 selected police stations and outposts across Madhya Pradesh, there were no motorcycles in six police stations and two outposts.
Further, it procured 102 cars valuing Rs 5.88 crore, which were prohibited for procurement under the Modernisation of Police Force (MPF) launched by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) government of India in 1969 to effectively face the challenges emerging to internal security.
The scheme was revised during 2000-01 and extended for a five year period from 2012-13.
The performance audit of modernisation of the MP Police also noticed a shortage of 23,955 modern weapons as of December 2016, and that the department was dependent on old weapons which affected the striking capacity of the force.
Further, the CAG report revealed an overall vacancy of 16,751 personnel in the police force as of June 2016.
Posts of scientific officers and lab technicians were lying vacant in forensic science labs, leading to large pendency in forensic examinations.
Training of police personnel was affected due to short availability of trained teachers. In an interview of 150 police personnel in selected districts, only 26% were satisfied with available resources and 45% were satisfied with career progression.
This scenario was especially important as the number of cognizable (Indian Penal Code) crimes in the State during 2011-15 increased gradually from 2.17 lakh to 2.69 lakh and pending investigations rose from 12,582 to 23,380 cases.
On police housing and building, there was a shortage of police buildings, 68% shortage of police houses in the State as of March 2016.
More than two thirds of subordinate police personnel could not be provided government accommodation due to a shortfall of 69,978 houses.
Due to inadequate police housing in 13 districts, the police personnel were compelled to live in 683 condemned and 582 dilapidated houses. Basic amenities such as toilet and rest rooms for women personnel were also lacking in police stations and outposts.
There was also an inordinate delay noticed in procurement of equipment related to forensic science labs, telecommunications etc.
The CAG report dealing with General and Social Sectors therefore mentioned that effective steps were required to strengthen the police force with adequate manpower, improve living conditions of personnel, enhanced mobility, weaponry and other related infrastructure.
Cost of police guard not recovered from borrowing organisations:
The CAG report also noted that owing to laxity of police superintendents of Bhopal and Dewas in collection of cost of police guard and bank guarantee in advance, cost of police guards supplied to borrowing public sector banks/undertaking amounting to Rs 1.87 crore could not be recovered.
Test check of records of SP Bhopal (July 2015) and SP Dewas (August 2015 and August 2016) revealed that police guards were provided to public sector banks, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and Doordarshan on their request.
The government sanctioned the posts of policemen for their deployment in these establishments with instructions to collect the expenses incurred on them in advance from the establishments.
But the audit noticed that the respective SPs did not collect the cost of police guards in advance, neither did they follow up for recovery on regular intervals, which resulted in accumulation of charges amounting to Rs 1.87 crore for the period 2010-11 to 2015-16.
Out of the Rs 1.87 crore, the sum of Rs 1.38 crore pertains to the period 2011-12 and 2013-14.
The matter was reported to the Madhya Pradesh government in May 2016. In the exit conference in November 2016, the police department verified the facts and stated that the cost of police guards amounting to Rs 1.62 crore (Rs 1.02 crore for SP Bhopal and Rs 60 lakh for SP Dewas) were still outstanding.
Action for recovering the outstanding dues were in progress and meetings will be held with borrowing organisations.
The reply of the department was not acceptable as the cost of police guards wasn’t collected in advance and bank guarantee was also not taken from the borrowing organisations as per government orders.
Had bank guarantee been taken from defaulting organisations, it could have been encashed for realisation of charges of police guards.