Home Ministry in search of private help to train state police

NEW DELHI: The home ministry has sought help from private consulting firms and reputed academic institutions to draw up mock exercises and drills for police personnel of states for anti-hijack operations and dealing with attacks by dirty bombs.

As per the Expression of Interest (EoI) invited for a proposed Training Intervention Scheme, the ministry wishes to develop 10 mock exercises for various police operations across the country including development of manuals, standard operating procedures, drills and films. The mock exercises will simulate anti-hijacking operations and combating chemical attacks, biological attacks, radiological attacks and nuclear attacks, besides hostage negotiations, VIP protection and convoy movement, handling of improvised explosive devices and landmines, and ambush and counter-ambush situations in varied terrains such as hills, jungles and plains. The ministry has asked for bids from reputed academic and training institutions, universities and consulting firms for implementation of the programme.

“The home ministry under the Plan scheme of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) proposes to undertake following training interventions to train and guide police forces of states, union territories and central paramilitary forces so that the police personnel are able to discharge their duties more effectively,” says the document inviting EoI.

Another key area of the exercise is to assess the quality of investigation by the police forces of 18 states and union territories for various offences such as rape, kidnapping and murder in order to ascertain the degree of knowledge and skills exhibited by the investigating officers in the collection of evidence in order to ensure convictions. “It is intended to suggest interventions to the police to address the competency gaps to improve quality of the investigation,” the document says.

The private consultant or university will also be tasked to do a specific analysis of training needs of various ranks of police forces, separately for civil, armed and other specialised wings of the police keeping in view “typical or peculiar” problems such as Maoism, terrorism and communal tensions, as per the document. Police forces in various conflict-prone states have been found wanting in handling such challenges.