Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 26
Two of the most senior officers of the state police – DGP (Nagaland), LL Doungel and IGP (Crime), Toshitsungba Aier – on Thursday challenged the NPS officers, and by extension the state police force, to rise above unflattering public perception and commit themselves to their principal duty of law enforcement and crime investigation.
“We are good at everything except policing,” said DGP, LL Doungel while addressing the annual conference of Nagaland Police Service Association here today at Chumukedima. “I am not saying (this) by way of accusation or complaint but simply highlighting a concern.”
He remarked that the Nagaland police has earned “very good reputations” through its sepak takraw players, the cadres’ expertise at moorah weaving and the DGP band. “We are good at all these things except policing,” he rued.
Doungel said that the failure at policing has been reflected through the “abysmal” rate of crime conviction in the state, which he shared was hardly 1%. While agreeing that the process of crime conviction also involves the prosecution and the magistrate, he however asserted that the process starts from the police. “Are we not failing at everything?”
The DGP also said that the police officers are not guided by public interest when it comes to transfer and posting. He reminded that while physical/medical fitness is “the ground for police recruitment”, most officers cite “physical unfitness” as plea for transfer/posting. On the cadre review proposal, he informed that the PHQ has proposed the Ministry of Home Affairs to increase the strength to 92 from the current strength of 70 officers. He however reminded that this might also pose some problems as the state is currently struggling to fill up even the existing posts.
Fellow officer and IGP (Crime), Toshitsungba Aier also echoed similar sentiments. According to the IGP (Crime), the public perception of the state police “is not very good because of many reasons” and that people see it as “an employment department and not a policing department.”
He also reminded that the primary brief of the state police was to police. “Our priority is law and order and crime inspection. But over the years I have noticed that we spend more time on non-policing and VIP duties.”
On the practice of “choice posting”, Aier said that most of the officers wants to be posted either at Dimapur or Kohima. “We have compromised our conviction for choice posting,” he said while adding that tribalism and political influence have affected the process of transfer as well as rank promotion. The state government spends 23% of its non-plan budget on police department. And with a police/population ratio of 1:15, Nagaland has become a totally police state, he said.
“Yet, governance has deteriorated over the years. On the outside everything appears to be peaceful but inside there are lots of things going on,” he remarked.
To improve the efficiency of the state police force, Aier suggested that a recruitment process similar to that which is used for the IRBs, be applied for the other units as well. He also observed that church activities, within the state police apparatus, have “in many ways” superseded the unit duties of a police cadre.
