The Madhya Pradesh government looks intent on implementing police commissionerate systems in the state capital Bhopal and financial capital Indore within a week.
On Wednesday, MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra said the government will issue five notifications each for implementation of the system in the two major cities by the end of November. Bhopal and Indore, the first cities of MP to get the system, would thus join the list of 71 cities in the country that currently have the police commissionerate system.
Police commissionerate system gives magisterial powers of various kinds to senior police officers (IPS officers) and they can thus function independently of the district collectors/magistrates, who have the magisterial power in the normal policing system.
The home minister said various acts will be suitably amended to give additional powers to police commissioners and selected officers under them and there will be no need for cabinet or state assembly approvals for the changes. The notifications will be issued after due approvals from the law and finance departments.
The home minister's statement comes within three days of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announcing the decision to implement a police commissionerate system in Bhopal and Indore.
Mishra said all the police stations in urban areas of the two cities will fall under the new system. Also, the police stations that have part municipal and part rural areas under their jurisdiction will be included in the system.
Officers will be posted under the commissionerates on the same day as the notifications will be issued, the home minister said.
Additional powers will be given to the officers under the commissionerate system by amending certain sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Police Act, Motor Vehicles Act, National Security Act, State Security Act (pertaining to externment from districts), Prisoners Act, Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, Government Secrets Act and others, Mishra said.
As for the hierarchical postings, the new system will have a police commissioner (most probably of an additional director general of police rank) in both the cities. The subordinate officers will include three joint commissioners, eight additional commissioners, 12 deputy commissioners and 29 assistant commissioner rank officials.
On Sunday, while announcing the decision to implement the new system, Chouhan had said though the law and order situation in MP is better, the urban population has been increasing rapidly and metro cities are expanding geographically and population-wise. This led to some new problems of law and order and the decision is aimed at better controlling of crime, he had said.
There have been several attempts in the past two decades for implementation of the police commissionerate system in bigger cities of MP, but kept hanging fire due to reported opposition from IAS officers who felt that the system would undermine the authority of district collectors. Chouhan had announced the decision to implement it in the state assembly in December 2012, but within few days, the government reverted to the deputy inspector general (DIG) system of policing, replacing the senior superintendent of police (SSP) that was in vogue in Bhopal and Indore earlier.
