Netas’ meddling singes force’s morale: Top cop

BENGALURU: In the aftermath of the attack on Lokayukta Justice P Vishwanath Shetty, the president of the Indian Police Service (Karnataka) Association (IPSA) has shot off a letter to state chief secretary Ratna Prabha. The letter by ADGP RP Sharma seeks a meeting of IPS officers to evolve a strategy to ensure free and fair polls, and the long-term goal of imbibing professional values in the police force.
Stating that frequent interference by politicians and others had led to the public losing confidence in the police, the letter said they had further demoralized the force. Sources in the CM’s office, however, quoted the secretary of IPSA, Pronab Mohanty, as saying that the views of the IPSA president are his personal opinion and not that of the association. The issues have not been discussed in the association, he reportedly told CMO.

Frequent transfers of cops affecting morale, says IPS officers’ assn

Listing recent incidents, including assaults on senior IAS officers in surrounding districts as well as riots over sharing of Cauvery water, the association’s March 8 letter sought to point out a pattern in negligent behaviour.

Among the incidents referred to were the attack on a youth in a restaurant in UB City and a politician attempting to set a government office afire. The first incident was an allusion to the attempt-to-murder case involving Shantinagar Congress MLA NA Haris’ son, and the second pertained to a Congress leader’s threat to torch BBMP office in KR Puram.

“This indicates a serious chink in the armour of the security fabric and even senior public servants like the Lokayukta, senior IAS officers and various common people are victims of these attacks in an environment which could be presumed very safe in normal circumstances,” it read, adding: “The Indian Police Service in Karnataka had a strong tradition, but today it is seen as a pale shadow of its past.” Because of frequent transfers of IPS officers, including the post of Bengaluru City commissioner which has been occupied by six officers in the past four-and-a-half years, the “continuity, command formation and, of course, the intrinsic confidence in service members, all is at an abysmally low level”, Rajiv Pratap Sharma, ADGP and president of IPSA, wrote.

“The legacy to the next generation (is what) service leaders have to leave and I am extremely unsure that eccentric location of power, with loss of chain of command and, of course, declining sense of responsibility towards the common man besides day by day increasing loyalty to men in power for wrong reasons, is antithetical towards such a legacy,” he added.