In a shift from his routine jobs of handling internal security threats from Kashmir to India's vast coastline and the northeast, Rajiv Jain, Director of Intelligence Bureau, has been asked by the Union government to develop a uniform model for ranking police stations in the country and identify the 10 best police stations.
Besides ranking the police stations, the officers will be honored in the next DGP/ IGPs conference which is addressed by the prime minister and attended by the top police brass in the country.
Over the years, the Union home ministry and the top police brass have been flummoxed over how to improve local policing and make it citizen-friendly. This is an area that has suffered neglect far too long. No solution has been thrown up despite intervention from many quarters.
After an intensive brain storming session with the top police officers in the last few months, the Narendra Modi government has hit upon the idea of recommending the Rajasthan model of ''grading police stations'' to all states and union territories. The home ministry feels that this will inculcate a spirit of competition among the police forces in the country to ensure they are up to the mark as far as crime prevention and prosecution rate are concerned.
"The fact that the issues are being handled at the highest level is ensuring that the state police chiefs and others are on their toes. The police stations need extra attention because they act as platforms for direct interface with the public," said a senior IPS officer explaining that the MHA wants to improve the image of the average Indian policeman.
The home ministry hopes that the system of grading police stations and providing them facilities according to the grading will not only bring healthy competition, but ultimately result in improvement in law and order situation, crime prevention and prosecution rate.
Meanwhile, the DIB has decided to constitute a committee to help him identify the ten best police stations. Simultaneously, attempts are being made by the MHA to inculcate soft skills among police officers as well as the constabulary to polish up the image of the police personnel. The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) has been roped in to assist the police forces to identify domain experts across states to help the police departments in this new exercise.
