Don’t allow cops to be kicked around: PC to DGPs

NEW DELHI: Home minister P Chidambaram on Monday took a dig at state governments exerting undue influence over police through arbitrary postings and transfers and exhorted DGPs to raise their voice against their officers being ���reduced to a football, to be kicked here and there.���

Incidentally, in states like UP, the average tenure of DSPs is a shocking four months. Punjab, too, has a poor trackrecord on this front. There are states, however, that have delivered on a stable tenure for police officers. These include Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Kerala.

Noting with concern the failure of state governments to constitute the Police Establishment Board ��� a mechanism suggested by the Supreme Court for deciding on police transfers and postings ��� Mr Chidambaram, in his address to DGPs/IGPs meet here, wondered why police chiefs were silent when their men are transferred and posted on the whims and fancies of the state governments.

���It is a matter of deep regret that many police officers have been reduced to a football , to be kicked here and there, from one post to another, without regard to the damage done to the job as well as the officer,��� he told DGPs, asking them to introspect on what really was the length of tenures of key police functionaries like the deputy superintendents of police and SHOs.

Asking DGPs of errant states as to why they remained silent when arbitrary postings and transfers were made by their respective governments, Mr Chidambaram insisted that it was their duty to stand up for their officers and, more so, for people they must protect. ���Is it not your duty, as the head of the state police, to raise your voice not only on behalf of your officers but also on behalf of the people that you are duty bound to protect,��� he asked, quoting a judge���s observation that ���When there is a duty to speak, silence is culpable.���