Easy access to him, introduction of shift system, separating law-and-order and investigation duties are a few steps that have instilled confidence in the lower rungs of the police force.
New Delhi: The subordinate ranks of Delhi Police, consisting of Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors (SI) and head constables are relieved over the structural changes that are being carried out over the past few months by the newly appointed Commissioner of Police (CP) Rakesh Asthana. According to them, the commissioner is taking some of the toughest steps to improve the force and its functioning which had been due for the past several decades.
Speaking to ‘The Sunday Guardian’, an SI, who has been in the force for the last eight years, said that in his career, he has never witnessed such a CP who thinks and works for even the lowest rung of the police force.
“Unlike other CPs, Asthana is someone who can take tough decisions and all that is necessary for the betterment of the force. Someone like me, who comes from the lower rung officers, can also directly go up to the CP if I have any grievance. He listens to all his officers on every Friday. This was not the case ever in the past. The CP is also trying to bring in a shift system in the police. Who would have thought of something like this?” the awestruck SI said.
The Delhi Police has 78,945 personnel currently at its 15 police districts, with about 1,427 at the rank of Inspectors, 6,237 Sub-Inspectors, 20,355 head constables and 41,488 constables.
Through a slew of changes in the set-up, Asthana has launched a shift system in the Delhi Police wherein police officers would be put in an 8-hour shift daily along with a weekly off. This pilot project is being launched at the Rohini police district in Delhi. The district would function under three shifts, 8 am to 4 pm, 4 pm to 12 am and 8 am.
This system is being implemented through the e-Chittha software that the Delhi Police has acquired. Through this software, shifts would be automatically assigned to the police personnel in their respective districts with the location, and no manual intervention would be required in this process.
Apart from this, Delhi Police officers are highly appreciative of the separation of their law-and-order and investigation duties, undertaken by Asthana just months after taking charge in July last year.
An officer, who has been put into investigation by his seniors, told this newspaper that this was one of the most needed changes in the police system and that he is very happy that such a change has seen the light of the day.
He said, “Separating investigation from law-and-order duties was a very ambitious project of the Delhi Police but no commissioner so far had dared to touch this since there is a shortage of manpower in the force. Now Asthana has taken this bold step and all the officers of the Delhi Police are extremely happy with this.”
“The clubbing of both these duties were hampering the quality of investigation. Say for someone who was put on law-and-order duty till 2 am in the night, he had to report back again at 8 am and work on investigation duties. In that scenario, how can you expect quality investigation from the police? The separation has given much relief to us and we can now work diligently on the assigned work,” the police officer added.
According to him, although the system is in transition at the moment and at times officers are required to do both the duties together, the situation is much better and with time, there would be a complete separation of the duties.
A head constable this correspondent spoke to was also elated with the changes that Asthana has brought in Delhi Police. He said that Asthana had created a sense of confidence amongst the lowest rung of the hierarchy. He further stated, “If you do a polling of all the low rung police officers in Delhi, I can vouch that 90% of them would vote in favour of Asthana. Delhi needed a commissioner like him.”
Some of the other measures taken by Asthana which has instilled confidence and a sense of joy among its personnel is the “10-year promotion rule”. According to sources in Delhi Police, in a recently held meeting of the top officers, it has been decided that the force would promote each of its officers every 10 years of their service.
In the earlier times, promotions in Delhi police were a very slow process and this had created a lot of heartburns among its ranks. The new rule allows each officer of the Delhi police right from the rank of the constable to the rank of the inspector to be promoted every 10 years, unlike previous time when a Sub-Inspector had to wait for at least 17-18 years to be promoted to the rank of Inspector and to become an ACP he had to wait for 30 years.