BHOPAL: Former chief secretary, Madhya Pradesh KS Sharma said on Friday police commissionerate system was bound to come to Madhya Pradesh given the present trend in the country but as far as its efficacy was concerned one should not expect any miraculous result out of it.
KS Sharma who had been instrumental in the capacity of the then home secretary in convincing the then chief ministers Arjun Singh and Motilal Vora and then chief secretary in giving his advice to the then CM Digvijaya Singh against implementation of the system is of the view that too much power concentrated in just one person as mandated in police commissionerate system might prove counterproductive too as seen in Mumbai where a former commissioner of police is facing charges of nexus, extortion and corruption.
The former CS said it was unfortunate that police commissionerate system was viewed through a prism of IAS vs IPS. Instead, it should be seen in view of its merit and demerit.
Newly appointed Commissioner of Police Bhopal Makrand Deoskar takes charge on Friday. | FP photo
(L-R) Out going ADG A Sai Manohar hands over charge to newly appointed police commissioner of Bhopal Makrand Deoskar on Friday. | FP photo
For instance, he said, Delhi was often highlighted in media as crime capital of the country despite the police commissionerate system over there. There were agitations on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and there had been riots too but police hardly had any clue about the happenings.
Mumbai, he said, had the system since British time but the city had seen the terrorist like Dawood Imbrahim, riots and infamous terror attack by terrorists from across the border.
“I am staying in Bengaluru right now but here traffic is as bad as any other city in the country”, he added.
The former chief secretary, however, added Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had done what he was supposed to do in the present time given the fact as many as 16 states already have the system in place.
He said the need of the hour was police reform which was a wide ranging subject including appointment of personnel, training, resources etc but, ironically, police commissionerate system today was highlighted as a synonym to police reform.
Defending the bureaucracy, the former CS said it was magnanimity of the then CMs that they listened to his advice. Had there been a decision on the part of any of the then CMs to implement the system he would have followed the decision.
