A total of 25 journalists from across the country have been selected and their views sought on record for the first time.
To rid the country's police system of the menace of corruption, the Centre is roping in prominent journalists, to help it identify reasons behind how corruption has come to be so deep-rooted in the police services.
The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), which is under the Union home ministry, has taken up the task. To help things along, it has sought help from journalists, especially those who have covered crime and policing for long. A total of 25 journalists from across the country have been selected and their views sought on record for the first time.
Interestingly, however, the bureau has excluded editors from the list, saying their information would be unfruitful.
The bureau has also planned to analyse the system of bribery and how it impacts policing. To this end, they will check for modes and methods of seeking bribes, and also analyse cases of corruption registered against police officials. The investigation will span the police stations of 12 states, two each from the six different zones: North, South, East, West, Central and the Northeast.
The bureau said that as of January 2017, the police forces across the country employed 2,464,484 personnel, making it an average of about one policeman every 518 Indian citizens. There are 15,579 police stations, of which 10,052 are in the rural areas and 4,998 are in the urban areas. 529 are at Railways. In addition to this, there are also 9,087 police posts across the country. Currently, there are 60 cities in India which have a commissionerate system. Furthermore, 113 posts are of the DGP rank, while 325 are of additional DGP, 652 of IGP, 572 are DIG, and the rest are SP, Deputy SP, inspectors, sub-inspectors and the constabulary force.
"We have also planned to meet a total of 100 citizens in each of the 12 states chosen for the exercise, while 50 officers from all ranks working in the vigilance departments in each of the states will also be part of the study," the officer said.
The bureau will also interact with non-government organisations (NGOs) in these states. A recent survey by Transparency International (TI), a global anti-corruption civil society organisation had said India ranks top of the bribery rate among 16 Asia Pacific countries surveyed.
However, the bureau's task is limited to looking into the corruption in the police system, and to find ways of eventually weeding it out.
How Scribes Help
- Total of 25 journalists have been selected, their views sought on record.
- Editors have been excluded, their views deemed unfruitful.
- Scribes who covered crime journalism and the police prefered.
- How has corruption become deep-rooted in police force is the object of the study.
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