After complaints that cops demand money on some pretext or the other to file a case, home department doubles expense funds for police stations
After complaints that cops demand money on some pretext or the other to file a case, home department doubles expense funds for police stations
Police stations across the state can no more demand money from the complainant as the state home department has doubled the contingency funds to avoid harassment to the general public.u00a0
Director General and Inspector General of Police Ajai Kumar Singh said that Rs 2,000 has been earmarked for the rural police stations, Rs 3,000 to town stations and Rs 4,000 to city police stations as monthly expenditure from the earlier Rs 1,000.
The idea was mooted after a recent survey done by the city based NGO, to ascertain the way of the pros and cons of the police department.
The survey revealed that majority of the people say that the police personnel demand money from the complainants on the pretext of buying papers and pens for registering complaints. "This doesn't just paint the police in a bad light, but also puts the department in embarrassing situations," said a senior police officer.
Singh has also warned officers to take stringent action against those who seek money from the public on the pretext of buying stationery or to bear expenses for outstation investigations. People can complaint to senior police officers ranking from Deputy Commissioner at the city level, and Superintendent at rural level.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (administration) M A Saleem said, "With the contingent funds, a station in charge could get stationery required for the police station including papers, pens and other materials. This otherwise would be charged from people coming to the station for filing complaints or otherwise."
In order to tackle such situations, the department has mooted the idea of increasing the contingency fund so that the police should not have a reason to seek money, he added.
Explaining the packages for different stations, Saleem said that reason why a city police station would get Rs 4,000 is because number of complaints it gets on an average compared with rural and town police stations is higher.
u00a0According to him, people in the city approach the police with a complaint for various reasons, whereas such complaints are resolved outside the station in rural and town areas.
In addition, the department has also started a scheme of granting investigation expenditure, which is not being reimbursed by the government. This would not only reduce burden on the victim and the complainant, but also increase the efficiency of the investigation process, said Singh.
So far the police officials unofficially used to depend on the compliant/victim's financial favour for
investigations. This would be brought down drastically with the new scheme, Singh added.
In addition to this, the police officers are also permitted to fly for outstation assignments, depending on the case. However, these facilities are not applicable to cases such as application enquiries and non-cognisable cases (non serious cases), he said.
A senior police officer said that such a scheme would help them a lot, and will make them accountable. "It will also prevent them to seek help from the general public or spend money from their own pockets," he said.
| Fund ka Funda |
| Contingency funds
Rs 2,000: Rural police station
Rs 3,000: Town police station
Rs 5,000: City police station
u00a0
Funds for investigation purposes/month
Rs 7,000: Rural police stationu00a0u00a0
Rs 10,000: Town police station
Rs 15,000: City police stationu00a0u00a0
Rs 10,000: DY SP/ ACPu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
Rs 15,000: DCP/SP
>>For instance, if there are 10 rural police stations, five town police stations, five city police stations, five circle officers, and five sub division officers in a district, then an annual grant of Rs 33 lakh will be provided.
>>The unit officer (district in-charge) concerned can incur investigation expenses upto Rs 33 lakh in respect to all cases registered in his district. |
| Fixed rate! |
| Rs 100 (minimum):
For passport verification
Rs 100-Rs 200:
For registering complaints
To ferry cops to outstation investigations:
Conveyance/food/ accommodation
To get stolen goods back:
Depends on the value of the recovered goods |
