NEW DELHI: The Central government has released Rs 7.69 crore each as incentive to 10 states, which successfully carried out police reforms such as filling up of vacancies, use of technology in tackling crime and welfare of police personnel. The amount was released to states under the Modernisation of Police Forces scheme in the last fiscal, said a Home Ministry official, adding that this is the first time that incentive funds were released to 10 states.
The states that received the incentive are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Police reforms have been on the agenda of successive governments almost since Independence. However, progress has been slow which led the governments to incentivise the states which perform better.
The chosen states had shown tremendous progress in fulfilling vacant posts, use of emerging mobile and IT applications, GIS based computer-aided dispatch, online complaints system and electronic record keeping among other practices. Also, these states progressed in the procurement of modern weapons, equipment, vehicles, CCTV surveillance, data centres and control centres.
Provision of adequate manpower in state police organisations is one of the pre-requisites to arrest crimes. Further, complex internal security challenges such as left-wing extremism, terrorism and technology and women-related crimes require focused and undivided attention. “It is critical that not only the existing vacancies are filled but a comprehensive review of the sanctioned strength of the police personnel of the state is carried out and a time-bound state-specific recruitment and training programme is finalised,” the official said.
