Chief secy's warning against setting up of commissionerates

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Sunday, 19 August 2012 12:46

Written by The Times of India

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KOLKATA: A note from none other than the chief secretary has been glossed over by the state government while setting up another commissionerate - the fifth so far. The Siliguri commissionerate was inaugurated on Sunday despite the words of caution.

Sources said chief secretary Samar Ghosh wrote on the proposal for forming the Siliguri commissionerate that four commissionerates have already been created and Kolkata Police's jurisdiction has also been extended. But the steps did not yield much result, thanks to administrative bunglings. For instance, Siliguri commissionerate doesn't have the contiguity and its population is below the minimum requirement of 10 lakhs.

The state chief electoral officer (CEO) has also written to the government that a new commissionerate would come into conflict with election laws.

The chief secretary apparently wrote that the government should wait for the recently created commissionerates of Howrah, Asansol-Durgapur, Bidhannagar and Barrackapore and the extended Kolkata Police to stabilise before carving out new ones. These commissionates are already facing public wrath as they do not have trained manpower, requisite infrastructure and equipment to deal with crimes and law and order problems. What's more, the way the Siliguri commissionerate has been carved out of the Darjeeling district where some major topographic and demographic issues that would affect operations.

A series of gazette notifications were issued on Saturday so that the commissionerate could be inaugurated on Sunday. The exisiting Bengal Police Act doesn't acknowledge the commissionerate system of policing. So notifications were issued to circumvent the law. The new commissionerate includes Siliguri, Pradhannagar, Matigara, Bagdogra police stations of Darjeeling district and Bhaktinagar police station of Jalpaiguri. Since 14 out of 47 wards of Siliguri municipality falls under Jalpaiguri district, the state government made the commissionerate's jurisdiction co-terminus with it. But the inclusion of the Bhaktinagar police station would still affect the contiguity of the jurisdiction of Jalpaiguri district.

The government has created Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling under certain sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure and then declared the Siliguri police district a metropolitan area. Then the post of the S P was re-designated as C P with executive magistrate's power. Only the posts of CP, DC, additional commissioner and assistant commissioners were created on Saturday. Other posts will be notified later.

Anand Kumar, DIG, Darjeeling, has taken over as the new commissioner but his post will truncate the powers of the district magistrate.

Yet the new C P's powers will be less compared to the Kolkata police commissioner. A committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary was set up for bringing Kolkata Police under one single act. But the proposal of the panel, which also included the home secretary, DGP and the Kolkata Police commissioner, was shot down by the chief minister after some Kolkata Police officials insisted that the existing system should continue.

When asked to comment, North Bengal Development minister Gautam Deb said, "The CM has set up the Siliguri commissionerate for better policing. We can't afford to sit on decisions as time is short."

Comments  

 

0 #1 Swikriti Rai 2012-08-21 00:45

दिखाने की दाँत है, खानेवाली तो बिना प्रोबलेम सभी निघलरही है।

 

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