State Congress chief Pritam Singh urged the State Government to act promptly on the High Court ruling of replacing revenue police with regular police in the areas where the former is still doing the policing work. “I wonder what the StateGovernment is waiting for with over two months having passed since Nainital High Court issued its order,” he said.
Singh said that theState Government should go ahead with High Court’s order and start setting up police stations and police posts in the revenue areas to provide better policing in the mountainous parts of the State. “We are waiting for the State Government to embark on the work of the replacement. The people of the hills are wanting the same,” the State Congress chief said.
Meanwhile, the State police are yet to receive clear instruction from the State Government. Quizzed over what they are going to do to execute the recent High Court’s order of replacing revenue police with regular police across the State, the State director general of police Anil K Raturi said that they are doing whatever they can do on the matter. “I am not in a position to say much regarding the matter as the State administration is yet to give us express instruction to start work on the ground.
However, it does not mean that we are sitting idle. We are doing things at the levels of the district and the police headquarters. The police district chiefs have been directed to send reports on the number of police stations needed in the revenue area under their jurisdictional limits so that State police would not spend much time if Government instructs to set up police stations in revenue area,” he added.
Another a senior police officer said that the police department is thinking in terms of extending the jurisdictional limits of the existing police stations in the revenue areas as well as setting up of new police stations and police posts to execute the High Court order for the time being till the policing infrastructure is put into place permanently in the hills.
Police sources said that to implement the High Court’s order to the State Government for setting up regular police stations in the revenue areas, the State police would have to set up around 15 regular police stations and around 80 police posts in such areas which would cost the state exchequer over Rs 100 crore.
This is aside from the expenses the State Government would have to spend additionally to pay salaries to the newly recruited police personnel to be deployed in the hills, police sources said.
As per the general rule, one police station officer, four sub-inspectors, five head constables and 15 constables are required for running a police station while one sub-inspector, one head constable and eight police constables are needed for running a police post.
Mention worthy, the Nainital High Court had ordered the abolition of the revenue police system, started way back in 1861 by then British India Government, while asking the state government to replace revenue police with regular police in six months.