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| Acute shortage of housing infrastructure, police stations, outposts, vehicles: MHA report | | J&K police well-equipped? | | Syed Junaid Hashmi /
Sumit Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 9: Union Home Ministry funded scheme for modernization of police forces (MPF) has failed to bring desired results and filled in limited shortcomings when compared with requirement of Jammu and Kashmir police force.
Most depressing aspect is acute shortage of staff quarters, police stations per hundred personal, police outposts, vehicles and Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL). J&K has seemingly prioritized procurement of weapons and spent minimal on the modern and technologically well-equipped training of the police force.
Though adequacy, procurement, distribution and quality of weapons has boosted morale, confidence and efficiency of police forces in fighting militancy yet other factors which include acute shortage of staff quarters, police stations, police outposts and vehicles, thereby, acutely impacting competence and confidence of the police force.
A report on the assessment of impact of modernization of police forces scheme in Jammu and Kashmir from year 2000-01 to 2009-10 has brought out the fact that since the inception of current scheme format in the year 1998, the total sanctioned strength of the police personnel in J&K has gone up significantly. Despite the large chunk of funds being used in the construction and up gradation of the staff quarters, the ratio of staff quarters per 100 Police personnel has gone down noticeably.
According to the assessment report, staff quarters per hundred police personnel have gone down from 13.43 percent in 1998 to 10.14 percent in 2008. In case of police stations and outpost buildings, report asserts that even though new construction activities were undertaken during 2000-01 to 2008-09 and infact, J&K spent most of the scheme funds on construction activities in 2006-07 but still the staff to building ratios remained unaffected.
One of the key reasons for the marginal or no increase has been attributed to the inability of the administrative constructions to keep pace with increase in the sanctioned strength of the police force. For the sanctioned strength which increased from 27, 323 in 1998 to 68, 976 police personnel in 2008, staff quarters went up from meager 3669 in 1998 to 6997 in 2008.
Further, for improving mobility of the police force, J&K had 2130 vehicles in 1998 and after the funds were made available to the state under this scheme, number went up to 4894 in 2008. The number of vehicles per 100 police personnel was 7.80 in 1998 and it deteriorated to 7.10 in 2008, thus indicating that the increase was not in consonance with the demand.
Similarly, police stations increased from 114 in 1998 to 170 in 2008 but police station per 100 police personnel went down from 0.42 in 1998 to 0.25 in 2008. Police outposts which were just 32 in 1998 were enhanced and the number in 2008 stood at 105. However, police outposts per 100 police personnel went up from 0.12 in 1998 to 0.15 in 2008.
The mobile FSL units in the 22 districts of the state were 10 in 1998 and are presently, 15. Jammu and Kashmir has meager breath analyzers and speed checking devices. Also, most of the assets created under MPF are not properly maintained due to absence or inadequacy of funds (under MPF scheme or state share) for their repair and maintenance. Report indicates that the Jammu and Kashmir Police Housing Board undertakes majority of the construction work on a nomination basis.
Therefore, in the absence of competition, report says that projects get delayed and at times the quality of construction is also not upto mark in some cases. Report has recommended for considering expansion of panel of construction agencies and allowing participation of private players to encourage competitiveness. It has said that there is an urgent need for continued inclusion of Police Administrative and Housing component under the MPF funding to improve the Staff to Housing and Staff to Administrative building ratios.
While MPF fund has allowed the states to procure modern weapons like SLR, AK?47, INSAS & Pistols, the quantity procured does not fully cater to the requirements of the Police forces. Majority of the survey respondents were of the view that police force in J&K still continues to depend on the outdated and unserviceable weapons. |
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