NEW DELHI: In what may be described as an attempt to build a super structure on the foundation of sand, theUPA government had in the past over four-five years taken up a number of big-ticket initiatives to strengthen internal security infrastructure but it failed to contribute much to bring change at the level of local police which is the primary responder to any crime incident.
This observation is going to dominate the Conference of chief ministers on internal security here on Wednesday when non-Congress ruled states would pitch for more central funds for improving their basic police infrastructure.
There has already been lot of unease among non-Congress ruled states about the Centre's approach to deal with internal security challenges. The chief ministers of such states had during previous Conferences clearly pointed out how the home ministry had pushed for big-tickets security reforms without taking needs of local police into account.
Be it creating NIA to investigate all terror cases, setting up NSG regional hubs, launching Rs 2,000 crore worth CCTNS project to connect over 14,000 police stations, operationalising Rs 1,011 crore Immigration, Visa and Foreigners' Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) system or setting up NATGRID at the cost of Rs 1,100 crore for real-time information sharing, the efforts may elude results if one looks at the state of police and policing.
Such a situation really worries security experts and retired bureaucrats. They refer how the country faces huge police vacancy of over five lakh personnel. Though states had launched recruitment drives, the paucity of fund and misplaced priority kept the vacancy at more or less the same level during 2009-12. Home ministry figures show that the number of police vacancy has, in fact, slightly increased from 5.03 lakh in 2009 to 5.39 lakh in 2012.
How would the big projects make the country secure when the states hardly have cops to man them?
"It's a scenario where the super structure is coming up on foundation of sand. You cannot imagine securing citizens when the foundation (police station) is weak due to poor infrastructure and dearth of trained manpower", said retired IPS officer Prakash Singh.
Singh, former BSF chief, agreed that the paucity of fund is one of the reasons. But, he said, "Why can't Centre fund the states to recruit and train police personnel? Had the Centre been sincere enough to improve the state of policing, it would have helped the states with finance, equipments and training".
Former Union home secretary G K Pillai too emphasized on recruitment and training. He said, "We are on the right track but police recruitment and training needs a quantum boost. Though police training infrastructure has improved, the attitude towards training is still wanting. No IPS officer wants to take up a training assignment as it is considered a punishment posting".
Pitching for police reforms, Pillai -- whose tenure as home secretary had seen all big internal security projects on track - said, "Politicians need to adopt a neutral approach and not block police reforms just to retain control over the police".
Asked about the UPA government's efforts to improve security situation in the country in the past nine years, the Union minister of state for home affairs RPN Singh said, "We have taken a giant step in terms of strengthening our internal security infrastructure. As far as policing is concerned, the government has also launched Mega City Policing and Coastal Police Stations schemes".
The minister too, expressed his concerns over states' poor response on recruitment and training. He said the states should focus on their roles sincerely. He did not forget to mention how certain states had prevented setting up of a central anti-terror body NCTC.
The home ministry will during the Conference on Wednesday once again pitch for setting up the anti-terror body. Though the non-Congress ruled states are still not ready to accept the Centre's argument over the NCTC, the home minister Sushilkumar Shinde will try to convince them about the necessity of such central body to fight terrorism in a much more effective manner
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