SC reprimands Delhi Police, tells them to provide time schedule for lowering crime rates

The crime rates have been increasing day by day and with the High Court asking for a timeline to improve upon such situations it's time the Centre takes it seriously. The bench consisted of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed when the High Court expressed its concern for the rising crime especially against women, children and elderly in Delhi. “ You should have a time schedule. Give a concrete timeline, demonstrating an overall and integrated timeline of proposed steps to improve policing and reduce incidents of crime” . The Centre had sent the High Court a letter which stated that they were inducting more personnel in the Delhi Police and thus “ It had to take time” . Thus the members of the bench were quite clear with their opinions and after receiving a letter from the Centre made it obvious that nothing can explain why the safety of the people is not being taken care of in the desired manner and the issue of the increasing number of cops mentioned in the letter cannot be left as “ open-ended and vague” . “ The bottom line is you have to spend money on the security of people” . Another suggestion that was made was about having a completely different group of police officers who would be in-charge of the VIP duties. The Additional Solicitor General (ASG) was told to file an affidavit which contained a clear, detailed and structured plan to move forward with the investigation procedures incorporating technology with it. “ This would be in sync with the separation of crime investigation from law and order” , said the Bench member of the High Court. The ASG also mentioned that at present the police to population ratio was 244 which would come down to 230 once 4227 more officers will be recruited on duty. The High Court regarding the affidavit demanded that a few things be incorporated as mandatory and said, “ statistics with regard to number of cases which are decided by the sessions court, the High Court in the last five years” , “ The number of cases in which there were convictions and number of cases in which there were acquittals” , “ This way we will know how many of the people you catch and go scot-free” . The bench made such statements for the betterment of the capital's people and their safety. It is being said that 10 CCTV cameras are to be installed in 10 police stations to keep a check on its officers. Tenders for the same are to be opened in May 2016. More importantly though, the Government under Kejriwal has stated be setting up CCTVs all across Delhi which were an initiative for improving the management of policing. As of now, the debate is about sharing the footage of the CCTVs. It is definitely not going to be under one authority although the primary access is to be given to the police officers as they are the ones who are ideally the first ones to respond to any crimes taking place, the Delhi Government mentioned.

OUR TAKE

We support the High Court's stance to give a timeline for improving the current crime rates in the national capital, Delhi. The simple reason being the people in the capital no longer feel safe especially women, children and the elderly as they feel comparatively weaker in front to the rest of the population. The Centre might have genuinely need some time and thus the timeline seems to be the nearly the perfect idea to sort the issue for once and for all. Also, by this there would no longer be any space for excuses from the Centre.