EC blinks, appoints special poll observer for Varanasi
Day After CEC Defended Him, DM Sidelined
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: Faced with election commissioner H S Brahma’s public criticism of the handling of the Varanasi standoff on Friday, the Election Commission did a Uturn and appointed a special observer to oversee polling in the high-profile constituency where BJP’s Narendra Modi is being challenged by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and Congress’s Ajay Rai.
With Tamil Nadu chief electoral officer Praveen Kumar being named special observer, Varanasi district magistrate and returning officer Pranjal Yadav will have to take a back seat in the conduct of polls. Yadav has been criticized by BJP for alleged partisanship after he declined permission for a Modi rally in the city.
Kumar’s appointment marked a dramatic climbdown on the part of the EC, considering that chief election commissioner (CEC) V S Sampath had publicly defended Yadav and rejected BJP’s charge against him. ‘Weak leadership spoiled EC’s work’
The reversal appeared to have been caused by Brahma’s public criticism of EC’s handling of the dispute with BJP over the conduct of the returning officer. The election commissioner, who had on Thursday publicly interrupted Sampath, stunned many on Friday by telling the media that there were lapses by both the EC and Yadav in handling the confrontation. He also said the poll panel should have responded to BJP leader Arun Jaitley’s letter promptly, adding that the poll watchdog’s functioning had been hampered by its “weak leadership” — a notso-subtle allusion to Sampath.
Although Brahma later in the evening signed on to a statement issued by the EC projecting a united front, the public outpouring confirmed BJP general secretary Amit Shah’s claim earlier in the day that the poll body was divided over how to deal with the Varanasi returning officer.
In any case, the evidence of a split in EC had come on Thursday itself when Brahma interjected Sampath on the issue of whether Rahul Gandhi had committed a transgression when he entered polling booths in Amethi on May 7. “There is nothing grey about it,” Brahma had snapped.
The appointment of a special observer for Varanasi came after a marathon meeting of the three election commissioners. Although the details could not be ascertained, Brahma’s remarks in public, BJP’s comment about division in EC and, above all, Praveen Kumar being placed above Yadav in Varanasi suggested that Brahma could have spoken his mind to his colleagues, Sampath and S N A Zaidi.
The subsequent unfurling of the banner proclaiming unity could be part of the compromise that the three commissioners hammered out. The panel issued a statement, which it claimed had approval of all three commissioners, clarifying that the top leadership worked as a “team” and denying any undue delay on its part in acting on complaints.
“The commission would like to reaffirm that there is complete coordination among the commissioners and all decisions are taken after due deliberation and in unanimity,” it said. On Thursday, Sampath had said the Varanasi DM had only acted as per professional advice that cited security and situational concerns.Barely 24 hours later, Brahma went public with his deviation from this stand. At a press interaction, he said the undue delay on part of the Varanasi DM as well as EC in communicating denial of permission for Modi’s rally at Benia Bagh was not justified and that BJP should have been told in time to make all the
alternative arrangements.
For the full report log on
to www.timesofindia.com
SC freeze on functioning of CBI officer
Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday grounded Archana Ramasundaram less than 24 hours after she became the first woman additional director of CBI, saying there was strong prima facie doubt about the legality of her selection to the post.
A bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha and Justices A K Patnaik, K S Radhakrishnan and S S Nijjar asked the CBI not to allow her to function as additional director till further orders. Petitioner Vineet Narain’s counsel K K Venugopal said the government imposed its chosen officer on CBI despite the selection committee not recommending her name.
Venugopal pointed out that in the Vineet Narain case, SC had issued directions to insulate CBI from political interference and laid down a selection process for appointment of top officers. He said the judgment specifically mentioned that for the post of CBI director, the selection panel was required to give a panel of names to the government. However, for the post of additional director, there was no such requirement and the statutory panel had recommended R K Pachnanda. But the government decided to appoint Ramasundaram.
Centre-state tussle over officers’ stint irks bureaucrats
Julie Mariappan TNN
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government’s move to suspend a senior IPS officer, hours after she joined CBI as its first woman additional director, came in for sharp criticism from former bureaucrats and triggered a debate about competent officers being denied central stints as fallout of strained Centre-state relations. The state government had on Thursday suspended DGP Archana Ramasundaram, a 1980 batch IPS officer, giving no reason for the sudden action.
Archana is the second woman police officer in TN in recent times to face such punitive action. In March this year, the Tamil Nadu government placed IPS officer M Sathyapriya under suspension while she was about to leave for Sudan to work for the UN mission on central government deputation. The state government had cleared her name for the mission months ahead of her departure.
In the case of Archana, the action drew sharp reactions from bureaucrats. Senior officers point out that the last post Archana held in the state – that of chairperson of TN Uniformed Services Recruitment Board – did not justify the government’s opposition to her central deputation and she could have been spared for the CBI assignment.
“It is an unfair treatment of a senior officer. This will only make the bureaucracy more hesitant to take decisions and act in a competent manner,” said B S Raghavan, former chief secretary of Tripura
CBI seeks more skilled hands to handle cases
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday made a strong case before the Narendra Modi government for greater autonomy and more skilled hands to handle the huge pile-up of cases.
In a comprehensive presentation to the Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh, a CBI team led by Director Ranjit Sinha, flagged several issues to free the agency from pressures and red-tape.
The presentation came months after the Supreme Court vowed to ‘liberate’ the investigation authority from ‘political influence.’ For several years now, senior BJP leaders like Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have charged the UPA with using the CBI to fix political opponents.
The CBI’s presentation sought to dispel the “myth of autonomy” of the agency by underscoring its administrative and financial dependence on the Department of Personnel and Training. The recent Supreme Court direction on grant of greater degree of financial autonomy to the CBI has been accepted in principle by the government, but there has been no concurrence from the Finance Ministry.
Sources in the agency said the Minister heard the delegation but did not give any concrete assurances on when his government would solve the issue.
Following the presentation, Dr. Singh said the CBI was overburdened because of the lack of manpower and infrastructure. “It was a formal introductory meeting and all the issues raised would be taken up one by one,” he told the reporters.
The Minister expressed happiness that the agency enjoyed the confidence of the people, pointing out that even cases of less significance were being referred to the CBI for investigations.
On the question of autonomy and redress of other issues plaguing the premier agency, he said it would be taken up at the earliest.
The financial crunch facing the agency was also raised, with it unable to pay for the maintenance of its Delhi headquarters and the proposed Mumbai hub yet to come up. The issue gains significance given that prosecutors have now refused to work as they are not paid. One of them has even moved the Delhi High Court.
The agency had earlier sought its inclusion under the police modernisation fund scheme to meet expenses but to no avail.
The presentation also highlighted that the CBI Director had virtually no role to play in the selection of officers — Superintendent of Police and above — as he was currently only an invitee to the Selection Committee of the Central Vigilance Commission. The CBI informed the Minister that about 15 per cent of posts were vacant in different departments.
SAFE CITY PROJECT
The IISS at the ground level will mean that all officers on the road will use hand-held personal digital assistant (PDA) devices that are no less than a computer. The PDAs will have online access, enabling an officer to check whether the car he has hailed for inspection is stolen or the driver has a crime record. These single checks will help police secure the city.
The project will multiply police’s surveillance capabilities with CCTV cameras. At present, Delhi has CCTVs installed in 26 markets and at five border points. Installation work in 28 other markets and 10 border points is 65% done. CCTV installation at the Supreme Court, high court and district court complexes is also over. All these steps will bring the total number of surveillance cameras up to 5,333.
Once the Safe City Project gets rolling, another 6,625 cameras will be installed at 479 locations while the traffic police are expected to install 5,000 cameras at important intersections, taking the total to 16,928.
Delhi Police’s cyber cell led by joint CP Sandeep Goel, the special cell led by joint CP MM Oberoi and the traffic police led by additional CP Anil Shukla will oversee implementation of the project in the next two years.
The ATMS will be a unified solution for traffic problems. It will be able to track e-challans, check speeding at night with night-vision speed detectors. It will also analyze the peak loads and junction management.
Other initiatives under the project include a PCR upgrade, cyber security, training of field officers, data integration with private entities like hotels at the local level and disaster fighting authorities like fire brigade and National Disaster Management Authority. Besides the police’s C4i control room, there will be two data centres, two mobile command centres, 800 mobile terminals for PCR vans and 6,000 handheld devices.
Experts, however, say the project alone cannot make Delhi safer. “It is important that Delhi Police customize the software. For example, fog and monkeys—common Delhi problems—can play havoc with video analytics,’’ said Dipankar Ghosh, director of a firm that deals in such security solutions.
HIGHLIGHTS
* Hi-tech plan covers everything from video analytics to facial scanning
* Will enable police personnel to run a background check on any suspicious person or vehicle anywhere in the city
* Will help in detecting explosives
* Will help in analyzing prisoner movement, reading biometrics
| Foundation Laying Ceremony for Data Centre and Main Office, for the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) |
| Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Home Minister today laid the foundation stone of Data Centre and Main Office building of the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) at Andheri Mod, New Delhi. In his address, Shri Sushilkumar Shinde said: “The Government has ensured that there was no repeat of 26/11 type of attack. Year 2013 witnessed 4 bomb blast cases. Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bodh Gaya and Patna suffered from terrorist incidence. I am happy to tell that Bangalore, Bodh Gaya and Patna blast cases have been solved. Lot of good work that our security agencies do, remains out of the public arena for obvious reasons, and therefore their successes go unnoticed many times. I would like to put on record my appreciation for them and believe that it is necessary for us to understand the diverse challenges that they face - to appreciate the framework that we are putting in place today. For our men and women who ensure the internal security of the nation, effective and timely intelligence is often what stands between saving precious lives and possible disaster. It is for this reason that our government resolved to create a tool that would support the Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies in the vital work that they do. One of the important lessons that emerged from the 26/11 attacks, was that information and indicators of possible attacks were present in different parts of the system, but there was no technological framework to help Agencies put the pieces together to develop actionable and timely intelligence. Over the past few years we have also seen that terrorists are using technology to radicalise, communicate, raise and move funds and even reconnaissance target areas – all the while remaining “under the radar”. A case in point was the use of secure communication technology by the people who directed the attacks on Mumbai and almost a minute by minute direction of the operation by the handlers. The NATGRID is a crucial initiative that will help plug our vulnerabilities by upgrading and enhancing our capability to detect and respond to such threats at the earliest possible time. The NATGRID framework will use cutting edge technology to help strengthen the Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agency’s ability to detect terrorist activity, and swiftly piece together information that could help pre-empt attacks or find the perpetrators in the unfortunate event. By creating a system like NATGRID, the government is also sending out a strong message to our enemies, potential terrorists and their sympathisers, that there is a high likelihood of them getting caught. While finalising the NATGRID solution the government concluded that it needs a wide range of specialised skills to create a complex system like NATGRID and that is why Government has approved to recruit from both within the government and private sector. I appeal to the best Indian minds to come forward and join NATGRID, one of India’s most prestigious projects and contribute to the cause of National Security. While the construction of these futuristic facilities will take some time, NATGRID will soon commence pilot projects to assist Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies in their ability to improve the country’s internal security needs. While laying the foundation stone, I assure you, the people of this great nation that the resolve of government of India to provide safety and security to all cannot be challenged. Hanging of Afjal Guru, Azmal Kasab and arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, Tunda, Haddi and solving blasts cases in no time, proves this resolve. Government will deal with iron fist when it comes to terrorism. |
| Security for women in public road transport in the country | ||
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved setting up of a unified system at the national level (National Vehicle Security and Tracking System) and State level (City Command and Control Centre) for Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking of the location of emergency buttons in and video recording of incidents in public transport vehicles, in 32 cities of the country with a population of one million or more according to the 2011 census.
The implementation of the project will help in:
i) Mapping of routes of public vehicles;
ii) Tracking of vehicles on the route;
iii) Highlighting of violations through visual and text signals;
iv) Panic button alert to transport and police through visual, text and voice.
v) Permit, registration and licence cancellation based criteria for enforcement.
(vi) Providing safety and security to women / girl child in distress in minimum response time.
The total estimated cost of the project will be Rs.1405 crore. The project will be implemented within a period of two years after allocation of funds to set up a National Level Vehicle Security and Tracking System and City Command & Control Centre with installation of GPS / CCTV / Panic buttons in public road transport.
The scheme for security for women in public road transport has been formulated with purpose of improving safety and protection of women from violence by using information technology in the following manner:
I. Tracking of all public transport vehicles: This shall be done in accordance with Sections 72, 74, 75 and 76 of Central Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. Defaults will be reported and updated on the data base of the vehicle.
II. Emergency button in all public transport vehicles: The button will generate an alarm in the system. For vehicles which are also provided with facilities for video recording, the City Command and Control Centre can receive pictures of actual incidents and raise an alarm with the nearest police and transport patrol to reach the bus.
III.Video recording in public transport vehicles with large seating capacity: Incidents recorded will be kept for seven days in the on-board unit and can be used as evidence and arrest of accused in case of any incident.
Background:
Women play an important role in the economy, politics and social sectors of a country. People from smaller towns, including a large number of women, move to cities in search of jobs or studies. With increasing participation of women in the economic sphere, safer mobility of women is essential. As most people, particularly women and the girl child, cannot afford their own transportation, they depend on public transport.
The Justice JS Verma Committee constituted in December, 2012 to look into the possible amendments in the criminal laws related to sexual violence against women made various recommendations for public transport vehicles in its report.
The Report of Justice (Retired) Ms. Usha Mehra, Commission of Enquiry constituted under the Commission of Enquiry Act, 1952 to look into the incident of gang-rape and assault on a woman on 16.12.2012 in Delhi suggested measures for safety and security of women in the NCT of Delhi and NCR.
Police, minorities and perception management
A survey done in a southern state, key inputs from three states with sizeable Muslim populations, and intelligence from state police chiefs — all put together by three officers of the rank of director general of police (DGP) — in 2013, speak of a situation wherein the entrenched perception of a police bias against the minority community could, if not corrected immediately, affect the country’s internal security.
The report, prepared by the DGPs of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and a senior IB official, is now with the central government, awaiting action.
The report is a summary and compilation of police and intelligence inputs received from states across India, along with the content of interactions with the community, public utterances by community leaders, and articles published by them.
To bridge the “police-community” gap, the report recommends implementation of a comprehensive “community policing plan”, improving “interface levels” between the Muslim community and police, improving and encouraging “participative policing”, and developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent communal riots.
HISTORY, SOCIAL MEDIA AND ACTIVISM
The report begins with an analysis of the wounds of Partition which, it says, “poisoned the relations between the two communities, leaving both suspicious of each other”. The scars were deepest in northern India, and the Ram Shilanyas Yatras and Ramjanmabhoomi agitation also “communalised otherwise peaceful parts of South and East India”, thus polarising the entire country, it says.
“The razing of the Ram Janam Bhoomi/Babri Mosque disputed structure saw communal riots erupting in most of the country. The use of terror as a retribution for the demolition and communal riots that followed the demolition further sharpened the conflict. Communal riots after Godhara were a watershed event.”
According to the report, “any place with a minority population above 15 per cent has become communally surcharged and susceptible to communal riots.” Police attitudes haven’t helped either, it says.
“Revolution in communications and information technology”, the report says, “are being exploited by various groups in various communities to spread discontent in the minorities by use of social media and mobile telephony to spread information of perceived wrong to community anywhere leading to tensions in other far flung areas.”
Attacks on students from the Northeast in various parts of the country, allegedly in retaliation for attacks on Muslims in Myanmar and Assam, are examples, the report says.
The report is critical of the role played by some NGOs and “activists”, and of media “hungry for news” in spreading “distrust” among minorities. The police, it says, lack an official mechanism to counter this “propaganda”.
“Role of NGOs and some ‘activists’ in spreading distrust about law enforcement agencies have also come to light. An active media hungry for making news has eagerly projected the views of such groups, lending credence to their statements and projections,” it says.
“Bereft of any strategy to counter such propaganda and lacking any official mechanism to deal with it, the police image has continued to plummet… NGOs and ‘activists’ giving statements after every case of terrorist attack, alleging that their members will be falsely implicated, makes the situation further complicated.”
ICONOGRAPHY AND PERCEPTION
The study looked into perceptions of several minorities across states, but focused mainly on Muslims, the largest minority. No state except Tamil Nadu has commissioned a study on the ways in which minorities perceive the police.
“Minorities view police as being communal and allege that they deal with situations involving two communities in a partisan manner favouring the majority community. All states are affected by communal virus in small or large measure and every riot appears to strengthen the feeling that police are communal.
“Barring Tamil Nadu, police forces of all states suffer from this adverse perception about them,” says the report.
The community questions nearly every police action, the report says. “Dispersal of crowds and use of force, arrests of accused, registration of criminal offences, applications of sections of law, preventive arrests, enforcement of curfew and providing security to minority members are some of the issues which are viewed with suspicion and allegations of unprofessional and prejudiced conduct made.”
It adds that “unfortunately for police, demeanour of some police officers and men in several serious communal riots in recent and not so recent past has served to strengthen such beliefs about the police”.
The report makes the point that the “presence of Hindu temples and prominently displayed photographs of Hindu gods and icons in precincts of police stations and in other police offices often strengthen the charge that police are communal.”
It says that “wearing ‘tilak’ and other Hindu symbols even in uniform in clear violation of departmental rules make the police vulnerable to such allegations”.
THE LAW, CUSTOM AND SENSIBILITIES
Sometimes the mere enforcement of laws brings the police into conflict with minorities, with accusations that the police are insensitive, says the report. “Nothing epitomises this better than the situation that prevails around Id-uz-Zuha (Bakr-Eid). The religion demands sacrifice of animals and demand for the animals for slaughter far exceeds the supply and animals have to be transported in large numbers just around the festival in violation of transport rules,” it says.
“Inadequate facilities for slaughter of animals in the abattoirs in cities force members of the community to slaughter the animals in their houses, often in violation of the laws… Their enforcement by police brings it in conflict with the minority community, earns the ire of community and strengthens the perception that police are insensitive to the needs and sentiments of minorities.”
The report cites a lack of sensibility on the part of the police. Examples: “Eating before members of the community called to police stations for interviews during the period of Ramadan while they are fasting, rigorous interrogation during fasting, or denial of water at the time of breaking fast, use of police dogs considered dirty by Muslims in their homes and offices or other checks.”
Allegations of bias and communal stereotyping have been levelled against the police by most minorities, including Sikhs and Christians, apart from Muslims. Muslims have pointed to pronouncements of suspicion by senior officers soon after terror attacks. Opportunities of interaction with various communities during passport verification, character verification and licencing “are frittered away by poor communication skills and thoughtless remarks”, the report says.
The problem, the report says, is that “police officers across the country are not exposed to basic education on religious backgrounds and traditions, which have further worsened situations… This lack of adequate knowledge leads to certain acts which hurt the sensibilities of minorities.”
The report gives the example of the demolition of an illegal structure by a local municipal body, during which members of the minority community discovered “some burnt pieces of pages of scripture”, which they brought to the police station. “Not realising the relevance of the burnt pages, the police station officers dealt with it in a routine manner of depositing them in malkhana without taking steps to ascertain significance of the pages and neither did they try to ascertain circumstances in which they were burnt, nor register an offence.”
This, the report says, led to an escalation. “Had the police officers realised what significance the pages could hold for the minority community, a law and order situation could have been averted.”
Law enforcers in different places have dealt with similar situations differently, the report says.
“A public toilet constructed by the road transport corporation was paved with ceramic tiles with pattern that appeared to some to be in Arabic script. A panicked leadership without getting it confirmed whether indeed it was an Arabic script or not, got the corporation to break and remove all the tiles.
“As opposed to it, in a communally volatile unit, scraps of papers were found after members of majority community had burst crackers in a religious procession. These scraps were found with something written in Arabic and rumour soon spread that Koran pages had been used in making of the crackers. Police requested religious leaders of the community to read and decipher if the pages came from the Holy Book. After reading the same they concluded that the writing had no connection with the Holy Koran and when the same was disseminated, the tension subsided.”
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
Police officers have attributed “lack of access” to minority dominated areas as one of the reasons for the disconnect. The committee has recommended that such areas need to be patrolled like any other area, without any apprehensions. Old wisdom has been stressed by the committee: that schools, private dispensaries, religious places, and social occasions should be utilised to interact with the community. Simple patrol measures such as collecting phone numbers and building a connect through regular conversations have been suggested.
Reviews by state police chiefs have shown that the police-community interface often exists only at higher levels or, in the rural areas, involves only the seniormost station officer. To achieve desired levels of confidence, beat constables, officers at the police stations, station house officers, sub-divisional police officers, and superintendents of police must be involved. Senior police officers must build multiple levels of interface at rank levels, the report suggests.
Analysis of the working of Mohalla Committees, a platform to bridge the society-police gap after the 1993 terror attacks, has shown that the initiative worked best when the police refrained from interfering. “This experiment is, however, successful when people of the neighbourhood are encouraged to form committees on their own rather than police or some other authority imposing some committee from top,” the report says.
The report suggests that police can, and should, act only as catalysts, and such efforts would not yield results until such committees sprang from within society.
Identifying Slum Panchayat as an “extension of Mohalla Committee”, the report says that slums were poorly policed because policemen on the ground are “loathe to venture deep inside slums”, either due to inhibitions or a lack of resources. The report encourages slum schemes, where the colonies form alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, supported by the local police.
The committee found that the police often took the “easy way” while trying to manage traffic in crowded areas dominated by the minority community — allowing rules to be broken despite spotting chaos. Traffic wards drawn from the community could be “beneficial” in convincing its members to abide by traffic rules, the report says.
Police reports from states have pointed to “aggressive competitiveness” during religious processions. Policing then has to factor in “religious sensitivities”, and be mindful of potential law-and-order situations emerging out of police high-handedness. Suggestion include involving community members as the first point of contact for processionists.
Sports can be an important part of building mixed community socio infrastructure, says the report. Suggestions include sending young police recruits with local community teams for matches, and sports competitions among mixed teams consisting of players from multiple communities, organized by the police.
A crucial policing aspect demanded from all units is that inputs, intelligence and thoughts of all ranks be taken on board while making decisions in field matters, especially where minorities are concerned. “Decisions made without taking them (junior staff) into confidence or consulting are executed without real interest, and either abandoned or reversed when leadership changes,” says the report.
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