Raising the pitch for total eradication of drugs menace and narcotics from the state, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister S. Sukhbir Singh Badal today directed the police force to take this task as a mission and implement radical steps for elimination of corruption at 'thana' level so as to be capable of rendering better services to common people.He was chairing a meeting of senior state police officers here today at Punjab Bhawan in which Suresh Arora, Director General of Police, all Zonal IGPs, Commissioners of Police, Range DIGs, district SSPs and senior officers at headquarters were present.During this state level meeting S. Badal, who also holds home portfolio, emphasized that the main priorities of the police should be on anti-drug campaign, curbing corruption at police station level, nabbing organized criminal gangs, night patrolling and campaign against drunken driving should be launched.
S. Badal stated that curbing the sale of drugs which was ruining the youth should be taken up as a mission and national service. Deputy CM put all the CPs/SSPs on notice as regards drug trafficking, peddling and corruption at police station level. He stated that corrupt SHOs and police officers should be weeded out of the force.He also stressed to install CCTV cameras in all cities and towns on mission-mode through community participation, besides separation of investigation and law & order with formation of special teams to investigate serious crimes and traffic enforcement.Deputy CM directed that a state-level crack team should be set-up to monitor the activities of important identified gangsters and nab them. He forbade the district police chiefs against registration of false cases and made CPs/SSPs responsible for control of corruption at police station level.S. Badal stated that police should not be involved in illegal mining and should focus on increasing professionalism in the working of the police. He mooted the proposal that police officials doing good work should be granted immediate merit-based promotions based purely on their performance and should be strictly merit-based.
S. Badal directed the state police chief that the persons in the force with a bad record or involvement in drug offences should be identified and weeded out through compulsory retirement using existing provisions in service rules. "Police is at the cutting-edge of delivery of important services to the public and such black sheep who bring a bad name to the police department should be weeded out expeditiously", he remarked.Deputy CM announced a new scheme of granting recognition to police officials doing good work by selecting “Best Constable”, “Best Investigating Officer”, “Best SHO” etc. and honouring them at state-level functions on regular basis. Deputy CM ordered all the CPs/SSPs to increase professionalism and level of discipline in the force through holding of parades/roll-calls in police lines and police stations.
He also declared a policy for compassionate appointments in cases of Line-of-Duty Deaths (LoDD) which would offer posts of sub inspectors, in cases where eligibility conditions are fulfilled to the dependents/wards of non-gazetted police officers who lay down their lives in the Line-of-Duty, while combating terrorist/militant, criminal or anti-national elements.S. Badal also informed that Punjab government would recruit about 7,000 constables, 465 of sub inspectors and 850 other employees to provide additional manpower for district policing. He said the long pending issue of seniority in the ranks of Inspectors/SIs/ASIs/HCs had been resolved which would lead to over 3,200 promotions in the various police ranks that included 225 Inspectors, 400 Sub Inspectors, 660 Assistant Sub Inspectors and 1,700 Head Constables.
While welcoming the Deputy CM, the DGP Suresh Arora thanked him for providing additional funds to the tune of Rs.107 crores to the police in the current fiscal. He stated that Rs.25 crore would be used for police welfare, Rs.11 crore for strengthening the intelligence network, Rs.9.83 crores for investigation expenses to police stations besides building up police infrastructure in the state.On this occasion special principal secretary to CM Gagandeep Singh Brar, special principal secretary to Deputy CM Manvesh Singh Sidhu, advisor on national affairs and media to CM Harcharan Singh Bains and media advisor to Deputy CM Jangveer Singh were also present.