On Police Day Celebration, West Bengal CM amply lauded Police Force of the State. Her laudatory speech acclaimed Police’s expertise, humane approach, honesty & impartiality. However, with respect to her tweet, Honorable Governor of West Bengal tweeted few counter questions. The Governor criticized the present legislature’s quid pro quo stance & their stance of using State Police as the frontline political workers. While Mamata Banerjee praised the Police Force of West Bengal during Police Day Celebration, distinguished political persons of the opposition recalled the recent incident of Tikiapara, Howrah, where miscreants kicked the Howrah City Police from backside because Police wanted them to abide by lockdown rules while people of a particular community were flouting those rules & crowding on road. There was huge public outrage about such criminal attitude of those people who kicked the Police. Common people got furious that certain community in West Bengal were flouting rules & demonstrating their denial of State Power. As a result of loud public uproar, one person got arrested for kicking the Police. However, almost simultaneously, heap of ration stuff were sent to the house of the arrested person by local members of the ruling party, perhaps as consolation. It displayed that under present legislation, Police of the State needed to bear with such humiliation which are demoralizing for them. WB CM didn’t speak about such issues on Police Day.
On August 31, people came out with Muharram Processions in Howrah in spite of its being barred this year by Supreme Court order. As Police went to prevent the rally, the Procession-mob started attacking the local Hindus of the area. The signal was crisp & clear. If Police goes to intercept their activities, they’d retaliate by attacking innocent common people. West Bengal Police has not been given freedom to act as per ‘rule of law’. WB CM didn’t mention about such helplessness of our Police Force in her speech.
West Bengal Police in general, is brooding dissatisfaction & grudges against the present legislation. First of all, Police (WBPS) is underpaid. The current Government is not paying the due DA to the Government Employees for last 4 years in spite of the Court’s direction to do so. Secondly, police is having to digest the humiliation of being used as frontline political force of the ruling party & under political pressure, having to silently absorb the shocks of criminal attacks upon them. Thirdly, police infrastructure has not been rightly developed in West Bengal in last many years. Instead, the existing infrastructure has eroded out. On one hand, while population & population-density are increasing in WB, police population ratio is decreasing & percentage of vacant posts with respect to sanctioned posts is increasing on the other. Hence, pressure on the existing police force is mounting unmanageably which is reducing their efficiency & making them frustrated further.
In 2018, total number of Sanctioned Police posts in West Bengal was 1,11,176 out of which 35,000 were vacant. This means, in 2018, 31.48% of sanctioned police posts of WB were vacant. In 2019, total number of Sanctioned Police posts in West Bengal increased to 1,40,904 out of which 48,981 remained vacant. This means, in 2019, 34.76% of sanctioned police posts of WB were vacant. Thus, percentage of vacant police posts with respect to the number of sanctioned posts increased further in 2019 from that of 2018. However, for efficient Police functioning in a State of huge population density, West Bengal Government should have increased appointment in Police Force to reduce percentage of vacant posts.
As per current data, police-population ratio of India is 138 policemen per lac population while in West Bengal, there are only 92 policemen per lac of the State population. While in a country like India the National police population ratio is low enough, further lower ratio is unfavourable for safety of West Bengal’s people.
In 2018, police population ratio in West Bengal was even lower. It was 77 policemen per lac population. However, doesn’t a crime-prone State predisposed with cross-border crimes where a large section of people tends to challenge the State Power, flout rules, attack Police & Police Stations, indulge in rapes, gangrapes & communal violence, need to maintain police population ratio much higher than the national average? Ideally yes. But in reality, it is much lower than that in West Bengal.
Police cum Chief Minister didn’t elaborate her plan on when would the Government fill up the vacant posts in the Police Force.
Debjani Bhattacharyya