New Delhi, July 05 : Strong attempts are being made to engage civil society in pushing the proposed bill on police reforms in the Parliament. In a seminar
titled `Making our police effective and people-friendly’ held on Saturday, eminent speakers, including former Chief Justice of India J S Verma and ex-CEC N Gopalaswami, talked about ways of improving policing and urged for a change in the law and order system at grassroots level.
Justice Verma emphasised the need for enhancing public accountability of police. He identified “lack of political will” as the biggest stumbling block in carrying out police reforms. “We will have to build public pressure to force government to carry out reforms as there is a lack of political will regarding this,” he said.
Gopalaswami said police should be trained to interact with the citizens in a polite and responsive way. “Carrying out police reform is very important to ensure police-citizen interface,” he said. The point was reiterated by Prakash Singh, former Director General, BSF, who said that reforms should be made right from the police station. “Local level is the weakest link. Police stations need to get maximum attention for reforms in terms of recruitment, training, intelligence.”
The first session of the seminar, organised by Common Cause, a public interest organisation established by late H D Shourie, was chaired by Justice Verma. Media’s effective role in making the police reforms a public movement was also discussed with many speakers urging for a “more sincere effort”. “Instead of sensationalising the crime and leaving it after reporting once, media should pursue the cause,” said Madhu Kishwar, a renowned social activist
—Agencies