Staff Reporter
Dimapur, April 15
Nagaland Police department Wednesday joined a few select cities in the country that will have a Police Commissioner. Liremo Lotha will lead the team as the Commissioner of Police. With the inauguration of Police Commissionerate by chief minister TR Zeliang, Dimapur also became the second district in the North East to have the commissionerate system of policing.
Dimapur, which occupies less than 10% of the geographical area of Nagaland, accounts for almost 43% of the crime in Nagaland which spans the entire gamut of body offences like rape and murders, property offences like robbery, burglaries, and dacoities, trafficking in drugs, arms and humans, cyber-crimes, economic offences etc. And with expanding limits and growing challenges and taking into consideration the heterogeneous population of the city, the necessity to introduce more efficient policing system was needed and subsequently the state government approved the commissionerate system on December 10, 2014. The new policing system is expected to create a structure which will enable faster decision making.
In the newly inaugurated setup, the department is elevating the supervisory capacity available in the district by one step by creating a completely new functional level of DIG who will be designated as the Commissioner. The Police Chief in the district i.e the Commissioner will be able to supervise more officers and men. While earlier there was only 1 SP for the whole district, now there will be 3 SPs who will all be designated as Dy Commissioners of Police. The number of DYSPs has also been increased from 4 to 9, who will all be designated as Asst Commissioners of Police.
Chief minister of Nagaland TR Zeliang, who inaugurated the commissionerate system said that the new system is expected to bring about tangible improvement in the area of policing and maintenance of law and order situation in Dimapur. Peace and stability are needed for progress and development and Dimapur is the most vibrant commercial and social hub of Nagaland with most of the economic and social activities happening in Dimapur. If Nagaland is to progress and prosper, Dimapur has to be properly administered, said the chief guest. However, if life in Dimapur is frequently paralysed by uncontrolled law and order situation, the whole state is directly or indirectly affected subsequently and therefore, good governance and peaceful situation in Dimapur is a must if Nagaland is to grow and prosper, he added.
And to ensure peace and stability in Dimapur, we have to strengthen the police administration and it is towards this end that the state government has introduced police commisionerate system in Dimapur, he said. The chief minister reminded the department that the new system of policing has been introduced in good faith on the department, therefore, the police have to also showcase your ability and efficiency to the people. He also hope that it will produce the desired result. Dimapur has a mixed population, whose dreams and aspirations are widely divergent and young Naga population has the education and the ambition to achieve great things, therefore we have to facilitate this by providing good governance and infrastructure, said Zeliang.
At the rate Dimapur is growing, it will not be long before Dimapur become a metropolitan city, Zeliang observed and added that the establishment of the police commisionerate system is considered necessary to prepare the police for the future growth and requirement of Dimapur.
It may be reminded here that the basic feature of police commissionerate system is the empowerment of sufficient power to the police including certain magisterial power under the CRPC to enable them to respond to crisis in an effective and timely manner. It also entails the elevation of the district level supervisory officers to either a DIGP or IGP rank officer to appoint as police commissioner so that more number of officers and men can be posted and supervise within one district.
Zeliang also hoped that the enhancement in the number of officers and men will result in specialized and better and closer supervision of police. With the inauguration of the system, the police will be able to pay special focus on crimes like cyber crime, human trafficking, narcotic, arms trafficking etc, said the chief minister. The enhancement in manpower is also expected to show result in better traffic management and quick police response in times of crisis.
The chief minister also while explaining the financial crunch faced by the government revealed that the Police Department alone consume 1000 crore annually out of 5000 crore in non-planned budget of the state. But if the police can perform, goverment and people of the state will be grateful but if they cannot, the people will ‘curse’ at them, he added.
Nagaland with a ratio of 1:72 has the highest police people ration in the country, which, Zeliang said ‘is more than enough.’ He also called on the police to improvise the system and increase their efficiency instead of crying for more forces. While calling upon the police force to update themselves with the present technology, the chief minister urged for better co-ordination between the police and intelligence, army, CRPF, SIB. Let us not play blame game but let us coordinate, plan together, act together and move forward and we will be able to control the situation, he added.
While terming the day as a red letter day, the chief minister said “on this day as we take the first step towards better policing of Dimapur, our state commercial capital, hope that this initiative will lead to a more secured and better administered dimapur.”
Dedicating the Commissionerate to the people of Nagaland, state home minister Y Patton expressed his hope that the people of Nagaland will see a new ray of hope to live in Dimapur with more secured and peaceful environment. He also said that the initiative is in tune with the manifesto of the government and party to enhance service delivery to the public and to make people safe and secure. Dimapur being the commercial capital of Nagaland and with a very heterogeneous population needs an imaginative administrative system to ensure that peace and tranquillity is maintained at all times, said Patton. The customary system of dispute resolution does indeed have its limitations in a place like Dimapur, the home minister added.
Dimapur city has become a breeding place for all kinds of criminal activities which sometimes leads to outbreak of ugly situation and therefore, recognizing the special need of Dimapur city and to make it comparable to other cities of the country in terms of security, the government has taken a bold step to change the Police Administration in Dimapur from the old traditional system to a Commissionerate system.
13 Out Posts are also being created in order to increase the visibility of the Police, reduce response time as well as to facilitate the practice of Beat Policing, the home minister revealed.
In order to ensure better preventive action and regulatory work of the Police, some functions of executive Magistrate under Chapter 8 & 10 of the CRPC has been delegated to the Police. In addition licensing function of activities/ subjects which have a direct bearing on Law & Order has been delegated to the Police. As is quite evident, the ultimate goal of the government in this process of re-organization has been to facilitate specialization, enhance accountability, rationalize manpower and improve supervision which will in turn increase the effectiveness of the Police force, said Y Patton.
Y patton said that the government is committed to make Dimapur into a world class city and this initiative will facilitate a conducive environment in Dimapur where people of all tribes can go about their activities without fear or anxiety. This system will lead to better incident response, improved public order, better service delivery, faster disposal of cases, better regulation leading to over all enhanced citizen satisfaction, he added.
He also called upon all NGOs, citizens of the state to extend full cooperation to the implementing agencies. The success of introducing the new system of policing needs the concerted effort of every responsible citizen of the state and it is also a bounden duty of all rank and file of the implementing agency to make the new system of policing in the state a role model for the other neighbouring states to emulate in near future. “We have to ensure that launching of this new system should not become a mockery in the eyes of the world but should rather exhibit maximum efficiency of the state government and the police personnel in particular.”
Earlier, the dedicatory prayer was done by Executive Secretary NPBCA, Dr. Hukashe Zhimomi while welcome address and introduction was delivered by Director General of Police, Nagaland, L.L. Doungel IPS. IGP (Range) Wabang Jamir IPS gave a brief overview of the Commissionerate system.. Short speeches were also delivered by Nagaland Chief Secretary, Pankaj Kumar IAS and vote of thanks was pronounced by Commissioner of Police Dimapur, Liremo Lotha IPS. The programe was chaired by ADGP (L/O) G. Akheto Sema IPS.
