URGENT PRESS STATEMENT. POLICE REFORMS WATCH RE: POLICE REFORMS WATCH DEMANDS WITHDRAWAL OF THE SAID UNWARRANTED ORDER. THE POLITICAL EXECUTIVE MUST STOP MEDDLING WITH THE FUNCTIONING OF THE POLICE FORCE Police Reforms Watch is an Umbrella for the movement of various volutary groups and activists committed to monitoring the implementation of Police Reform. Towards this objective it will facilitate advocacy and interactive engagement at the level of the Government, Police, Media and Citizens. The Police Reforms Watch is extremely dismayed at the order dated April 30 by the Home Minister / Government of Maharashtra on the issue of transfers and promotion even as junior as a Sub-Inspector. In a telling comment, the former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Rebeiro said" This new order - putting, as it does, all control of police careers in the hands of the politicians- effectively demolishes command responsibility for poor performance or criminal misbehavior. He has warned that Maharashtra will now have a police force that is headed by an emasculated leadership and ruled and run by the political executive". Such an order will sound the death knell of operational- command - responsibility as the police will not be answerable to its Senior Officers but to the political class. This is bound to result in a less effective police performance to maintain law and order which is the need of the hour. It is unfortunate that a progressive State like Maharashtra has hesitated till date to implement the Supreme Court's Directives on Police Reforms in the Prakash Singh case of 2006. In bits and pieces a few of the said Directives have been implemented in a purely cosmetic way and in no way it will enhance the impactful policing which is urgently needed. The very essence of a healthy democracy is to provide functional autonomy to the Police Institution whereby it could function efficaciously otherwise unwanted intrusion is a bane which helps in the subversion of the said institution. Police Reforms Watch therefore demands that the Supreme Court Directives are fully implemented and urges the Home Minister /Government of Maharashtra to withdraw this unwarranted order. We do not want the political class to meddle with the running and functioning of the Police Force in Maharashtra. In the meantime, we appeal to DGP Sanjeev Dayal not to resign and that the public are with him and will support him in this campaign. Police Reforms Watch will keep its options open for a public agitation if the occasion demands. We will also make the implementation of the Police Reforms an election issue for the forthcoming 2014 elections. Police Reforms Watch is an Umbrella for the movement of various volutary groups and activists committed to monitoring the implementation of Police Reform. Towards this objective it will facilitate advocacy and interactive engagement at the level of the Government, Police, Media and Citizens. Dolphy D'souza Convenor POLICE REFORMS WATCH 43, Kalina, Santacruz East, Mumbai 400 029. Cell: 09820226227 Email: policereformswa...@gmail.com
