Governor wants police to be a respected rather than a feared force
Basic policing and moulding our personnel into humane and thinking policemen in next one year:DGP Joykumar
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, October 19 2010: Manipur police today celebrated its 118th year of existence with a grand observance of Manipur Police Raising Day with pomp and show at the parade ground of 1st Battalion Manipur Rifles here.

To mark the celebration, a parade of various police contingents along with march past was held.

TS Gangte, Asst Commandant, IRB was the parade commander.

Governor of Manipur, Gurbachan Jagat, who was the chief guest at the function, along with Director General of Police, Manipur, Y Joykumar, IPS inspected the parade.

Eighteen police contingents including four female police contingents took part in the march past.

The Governor also presented DGP's Commendation Certificates to 39 police personnel on the occasion.

In fact the number of the awardees was 40 but one was absent today.

Governor giving away DGP's commendation certificate

Addressing the large gathering at the function, Governor Gurbachan Jagat called on the Manipur Police force to ensure that "we have a respected rather than a feared force." The Governor said, due to long feudal traditions in the country, government employees, particularly police have been feared and hated, and during over 60 years of independence, this stigma is yet to be removed.

"We have seen in the history of various police forces in the country that they do extremely good work while facing crisis situations like insurgency, law and order problems, etc., but they do not come upto the expectations of the people in their routine day-to-day functioning.

It is this routine functioning which has given the police force a bad name amongst the people of the country," the Governor said.

He further said, "The people coming to Police Stations have to be treated with respect, their cases registered without delay and investigated properly, and the culprits brought to book" .

Touching upon the functioning of Traffic Police, Governor Gurbachan said, the Traffic Police need to enforce regulation strictly but politely.

The citizens interact with the police at the level of the Police Stations and the Traffic Constable and for them this is the face of the police as well as the face of the government, and it is this face that needs to be improved through the personnel's courteous behaviour and professional work.

The force needs to be oriented to a more citizenfriendly one, the Governor said expressing confidence that the present leadership would provide the road map towards it.

Regarding the counter insurgency operations, the Governor pointed out that "We are not fighting enemy from across the border but but people from within, our younger brothers and sisters or older brothers and older sisters" .

He reiterated that anybody who is willing to talk within the parameters of the constitution of India is welcomed and can do so.

Guns are never a solution to any problem.

There is always a time and place for talk.

The Governor spoke about the need to make a fine balance between isolating them (insurgents) and taking the majority (civil population) along in our policies and approaches because the majority has the potential of convincing and bringing those individuals back into the mainstream.

He also said that the State police can be a formidable and effective agency in intelligence gathering and dissemination and combating social ills because they are rooted in the land they operate thereby understanding its culture and people.

He was glad that, "the State Police has set up a Subsidiary Multi Agency Centre (SMAC) to bolster its intelligence gathering and sharing mechanism." Further, a citizen friendly and information technology driven "Crime and Criminals Tracking and Networking System (CCTNS) has been taken up as a pilot project by the State Police under the aegis of the Ministry of Home Affairs", he confirmed.

The Governor cautioned the State Police saying, "Today's militants are equipped with sophisticated weapons and technological tools, and have acquired expertise and new modus operandi." He however congratulated the police and declared that it is one of the best with its "devotion, courage, conviction and professionalism" and that despite enormous internal security challenges particularly insurgency it has "successfully combated the menace of militant activities with the help of other security forces" .

He echoed optimism that "the law and order situation in the State has been showing encouraging signs of improvement", and in "the last five years, the number of violent incidences has shown a downward trend, and casualties suffered by Security Forces have come down significantly" .

DGP, Y Joykumar, delivering his speech on the occasion said that the Manipur Police is found wanting in carrying out basic policing which is crime investigation and prosecution of criminals.

"This is perhaps due to our continued engagement in C.I.Ops.

at the cost of other aspects of Police functioning.

The higher echelon of Manipur Police is fully aware of this limitation.

We propose to improve our performance in basic policing in the coming days," DGP Joykumar said.

He said that the Manipur Police officers are also aware that today people have lots of expectations from the police.

The police have to prepare to meet this expectation.

"It is in this regard, that we try to mould our personnel to be humane and thinking police officers.

We propose to focus on basic policing and moulding our personnel into humane and thinking policemen in the next one year" .

The DGP said that soon after the Khongjom War and defeat of Manipur King at the hands of the British, Manipur Police came into existence as the State Military Police in the year 1892 with a sanctioned strength of one European officer, 14 local officers, 49 NCO's and 400 sepoys.

Since then, it has come a long way.

Today, it has a sanctioned strength of 33, 575 which include the staff of CMTW, Wireless, FSL, Medical and ministerial staff.

He said, Manipur Police had to handle the Naga problems since the early 1950's and continues to do so till date.

The state was also affected by MNF Movement.

Churachandpur district, Sadar Hills and part of Chandel district were badly affected by the Mizo insurgency.

In the 1960's, it had to handle the militant movement of Meitei State Committee in the valley areas.

From the late 1970's onwards, Manipur Police had to face various valley insurgent groups which started to indulge into violent activities in demand of a separate Sovereign Manipur.

DGP Joykumar further said that in 1990's, the state saw very serious communal clashes between the Nagas and Kuki's.This led to large-scale causalities and displacement on the part of the Kuki's.This gave rise to a number of Kuki militant outfits.

Manipur Police had to handle not only the communal clash but also the consequent militancy of the Kuki group.

These violent movements put tremendous pressure on the ill-equipped and ill-trained Manipur Police.

"As a result, we suffered serious causalities of men and officers and loss of arms and ammunition.

But this also taught us to improvise and learn on the job.

This together with the tremendous support and thrush provided by the state government under the able leadership of Shri 0.Ibobi Singh, the Hon'ble Chief Minister, Manipur in the last 3/4 years has brought about a turning point for Manipur Police.

Today, we are provided with adequate number of men and proper equipment.

Today, the strength of a police station has been raised from a meagre 14 men and officer to 58 .

Each police station has been provided with one or more vehicles.

We have created special task force - the Commandos to deal with militancy.

In 2008, its number was doubled and increased to 800 .

One Commando Bn has also been raised as the 8th IR Bn.

Today, Manipur Police has the confidence and capability to deal with the militancy problem in an effective manner," the DGP said.

Chief Minister O Ibobi, Deputy Speaker, Th Lokeshore, other cabinet Ministers, MLAs, government officials, top police officers, Army, Assam Rifles, CRPF and other security force officials were also present at the function.