P Srinivasan I Jaipur
A lot of innovations have been done by the State Government in the police department, which is providing the much-needed relief to the poor, neglected and deprived class of the society and it has become easy for them to get justice.
The innovations include modernising the police functioning, setting up receptions at the police stations to make them public-friendly and pro-active, creating posts of Additional Superintendent of Police in every district to prevent crime against women and for effective investigation, Compulsory Registration of FIRs, Separate Unit formed for heinous crimes among others.
Ramganj Police Station in the walled city of Jaipur was visited to witness the things at the ground level. This police station is one of the ‘Adarsh’ (Ideal) police stations in the Pink City.
The personnel at the police station were quite friendly. Abhishek Khandelwal, a jeweller, resident of Ramganj who was one of the complainants at the reception room said, “I had come to know the status of the complaint that was registered 10 days ago.” He said that he had been to this police station four years ago, when he had to bring papers along with him to register a complaint, but now things have changed at this police station.
Today there is a reception room where the complainant can sit and tell their problem in length to the police personnel, who help in filing the FIR/complaint and the response of the staff here is very good. Papers and pens are available and the police personnel even write the complaint if the complainant is illiterate, he added.
Similarly, Shama Begum, a housewife, resident of Mohalla Mahavatan had come to register a complaint against her neighbour who was not allowing her to build a staircase in her house. She said that earlier the police station did not have many facilities, but now officers attend to the complainants in the reception room and lodge the complaints.
Ramganj Police Station House Officer Bhuri Singh said this is an ideal police station. Victims feel good when they are made to sit in the reception room and their problems are heard. The investigation is started on priority in the cases of crimes against women after filing the FIR, he said.
The image of the police has improved among the people due to the decisions taken by the state government. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that better results should be achieved with these innovations. He said that many announcements have been made for the police department in the budget. There will be no dearth of resources in the future too.
Compulsory registration of FIRs has encouraged people from the weaker sections of society along with women and girls to come ahead and file FIR. It is to be mentioned that in 2017, more than 33.4% of rape cases were lodged through courts and this number has reduced to 13.51% in March 2022. The reception room was to be constructed in every police station to make it public-friendly and so far out of 868 police stations, reception rooms have been constructed in 780 police stations and will be built soon in the remaining police stations.
The average time of investigation in the POCSO Act in 2021 was 87 days which was reduced to 41 days in March 2022. Similarly, in rape cases, the average investigation time was 89 days which is now 41 days; in gang rape cases, the time has come down to 48 days from 111 days and in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the investigation time is reduced to 44 days from 104 days. Rajasthan is the only state in the country where the facility is available to lodge cases through crime and criminal tracking network and systems (CCTNS) at the SP office. The Heinous Crimes Monitoring Unit has been set up in CID.
