CHANDIGARH: UT police tried to show it is tech savvy by trying to ape the Delhi cops' move of using a Facebook page for people to report traffic violations.
However, it has now got stuck while trying to ascertain the authenticity of what the people report and pictures they upload.Sources said the police did not have a specific method of ascertaining the information's authenticity.
Two such pictures reportedly highlighted zebra crossing violation at an undisclosed dividing road and were rejected in the absence of any set procedure for checking them, traffic police sources added.
Ironically, Delhi traffic police, which introduced Facebook concept first, told the public to also provide the date, time and place of the photographs. They also asked the person uploading to be the picture to post his name properly.
Talking to TOI, joint commissioner (traffic), Delhi police, Satyendra Garg, said, ''We have a provision of forensic examination of the picture if an offender contests the challan.'' Garg maintained if the uploaded picture was found fake, a criminal case was registered against the person posting it.
A visit to the Facebook wall of UT traffic police revealed a majority of complaints and some pictures did not have information like date, time and location of the offence. UT's DSP (traffic) Vijay Kumar said, ''The work on UT traffic police's Facebook is on primary stage.''
He said they would also post an advisory on Facebook for this.
More than 150 comments were received on the page from city residents and majority highlighted malpractices of traffic cops for challaning vehicles instead of regulating the traffic flow on the roads.
Show Of Concern
Naveen Soni posted, ''Like other friends, my main concern is that traffic cops make no effort to control the traffic and deter offenders to break traffic rules while hiding behind bushes and poles. Their only interest is to stop offenders to fleece them. Instead of discouraging the people to commit offence, they caught them after the offence. This is serious and needs to be tackled. This happen only on small roundabouts.''
Friday, June 10, 2011
AP Police: Police & Passport: A bottleneck called police verification
HYDERABAD: For the 1.5 lakh Hyderabadis who apply for a passport annually, tackling babus and agents at the Regional Passport Office (RPO), is only half the battle. The other half unfolds at a local police station where an applicant's documents land for the final verdict __ the police verification. And if standing for long hours in serpentine queues at the RPO is not bad enough, applicants say that the wait for police verification is even more frustrating. In fact, according to popular public perception, 90% of passport delay is because of laxity on the part of the police department.
As per official records, the special branch (Hyderabad) alone receives about 500 passport files everyday. Another 150 odd is added by the Cyberabad police limit. Applications collected at these two special branches is then disbursed to the concerned police `zones'. A work force of roughly 250 `havaldars' is used by the department to dispose these applications that, as per the passport rule book, should be cleared in not more than 21 days.
As an incentive, the RPO even dishes out a cash `prize' of Rs 200 on every police verification that is completed within the given time-frame. Police authorities, however, claim that they do not get a single slice of the pie and that the entire money flows into the state coffers. Passing the buck for the delay in verification on to the passport office, the men in uniform even say that it is the obsolete software of the RPO that is responsible for this tainted reputation of the department.
"Within hours after an applicant submits his documents at the RPO, the status of his file changes to `police verification awaited' on the official website. In reality, however, we never receive a file before a minimum of 15 days," said an inspector at the police verification cell (Hyderabad), adding how this time period stretches up to one-two months in many cases. "Even after we send the cleared applications to the RPO, the status does not change unless the file is finally processed there and the passport is ready to be delivered," the inspector added.
R S Praveen Kumar, joint commissioner of police (special branch) says that department is striving towards rectifying this gap in information and has even started a status update system on the Hyderabad police website. "If an applicant logs on to this site, he will get an accurate picture. The applicant will correctly know if his file has reached the police department or not in the first place. There is also an SMS service that we are promoting for the same," he said.
But the efforts of the police department seem to have done little to change public opinion so far. Apart from the slow pace of disposal of applications, denizens still rue the policemen's demand for cash `rewards' for verifications. No passport file, they say, is cleared without paying a tip to the havaldar visiting their house. And this amount ranges from a meagre Rs 100 to as much as Rs 1,000, depending upon the urgency of the applicant. Once money changes hands, concerns about whether the candidate indeed has a clean image and has been `legally' residing at the premises for at least one year (as is the requirement for getting a passport), are conveniently forgotten. "I am yet to come across a person who managed to get his passport (either through Tatkal or the regular route) without paying a bribe to the local policeman," said Rajesh Dubey a resident of Gachibowli who himself had to shell out Rs 500 to speed up the police verification process for his passport last year.
Officials at the RPO are only too keen to agree with such claims. In fact, in reply to an RTI application filed by a resident recently, the RPO clearly pointed out how police verifications were not being completed on time, leading to a severe loss in revenue for the department.
As per official records, the special branch (Hyderabad) alone receives about 500 passport files everyday. Another 150 odd is added by the Cyberabad police limit. Applications collected at these two special branches is then disbursed to the concerned police `zones'. A work force of roughly 250 `havaldars' is used by the department to dispose these applications that, as per the passport rule book, should be cleared in not more than 21 days.
As an incentive, the RPO even dishes out a cash `prize' of Rs 200 on every police verification that is completed within the given time-frame. Police authorities, however, claim that they do not get a single slice of the pie and that the entire money flows into the state coffers. Passing the buck for the delay in verification on to the passport office, the men in uniform even say that it is the obsolete software of the RPO that is responsible for this tainted reputation of the department.
"Within hours after an applicant submits his documents at the RPO, the status of his file changes to `police verification awaited' on the official website. In reality, however, we never receive a file before a minimum of 15 days," said an inspector at the police verification cell (Hyderabad), adding how this time period stretches up to one-two months in many cases. "Even after we send the cleared applications to the RPO, the status does not change unless the file is finally processed there and the passport is ready to be delivered," the inspector added.
R S Praveen Kumar, joint commissioner of police (special branch) says that department is striving towards rectifying this gap in information and has even started a status update system on the Hyderabad police website. "If an applicant logs on to this site, he will get an accurate picture. The applicant will correctly know if his file has reached the police department or not in the first place. There is also an SMS service that we are promoting for the same," he said.
But the efforts of the police department seem to have done little to change public opinion so far. Apart from the slow pace of disposal of applications, denizens still rue the policemen's demand for cash `rewards' for verifications. No passport file, they say, is cleared without paying a tip to the havaldar visiting their house. And this amount ranges from a meagre Rs 100 to as much as Rs 1,000, depending upon the urgency of the applicant. Once money changes hands, concerns about whether the candidate indeed has a clean image and has been `legally' residing at the premises for at least one year (as is the requirement for getting a passport), are conveniently forgotten. "I am yet to come across a person who managed to get his passport (either through Tatkal or the regular route) without paying a bribe to the local policeman," said Rajesh Dubey a resident of Gachibowli who himself had to shell out Rs 500 to speed up the police verification process for his passport last year.
Officials at the RPO are only too keen to agree with such claims. In fact, in reply to an RTI application filed by a resident recently, the RPO clearly pointed out how police verifications were not being completed on time, leading to a severe loss in revenue for the department.
Bihar Police: Patna Police unearthfake Glucose-D unit
PATNA: The Patna Police on Thursday unearthed a factory engaged in manufacturing fake Glucose-D at Post Office Lane under Sultanganj police station.
Police sources said that acting on a tip-off that fake Glucose-D was being sold by some medicine dealers on Govind Mitra Road under Pirbahore police station, a police team led by Pirbahore police station SHO Asrar Ahmad carried out a raid at K C Pharma and Shyam Health Centre there.
City SP, Patna, Shivdeep Lande said that while police seized one carton of Glucose-D from K C Pharma, they recovered 17 cartons from Shyam Health centre. He said that police arrested Ashish Kumar Jaiswal, Vinod Kumar and Rama Shankar Jaiswal in this connection. The price of the seized Glucose-D is yet to be ascertained, he added.
The City SP said that during the raid, the police team came to know that Rama Shanker Jaiswal runs a fake Glucose-D factory at Post Office Lane in Sultanganj area. Later, on Thursday evening, the City SP himself carried out a raid at the factory. Police seized a huge quantity of raw material, Glucose-D packets, packaging machine, weighing machine, a large quantity of wrappers besides 24 bags of powder from the manufacturing unit.
Meanwhile, another raid carried out by Pirbahore police station SHO Asrar Ahmad at a shop, Fashion Times, behind Patna Market, resulted in recovery of a large number of locally made watches being sold in the name of reputed companies.
The City SP said that the police team seized 16 watches, 127 pieces of dial, 200 pieces of coil, 442 pieces of EPV and 14 pieces of half-made watches. He said that one Raquib, a resident of Sultanganj, has been arrested in this connection.
Police sources said that acting on a tip-off that fake Glucose-D was being sold by some medicine dealers on Govind Mitra Road under Pirbahore police station, a police team led by Pirbahore police station SHO Asrar Ahmad carried out a raid at K C Pharma and Shyam Health Centre there.
City SP, Patna, Shivdeep Lande said that while police seized one carton of Glucose-D from K C Pharma, they recovered 17 cartons from Shyam Health centre. He said that police arrested Ashish Kumar Jaiswal, Vinod Kumar and Rama Shankar Jaiswal in this connection. The price of the seized Glucose-D is yet to be ascertained, he added.
The City SP said that during the raid, the police team came to know that Rama Shanker Jaiswal runs a fake Glucose-D factory at Post Office Lane in Sultanganj area. Later, on Thursday evening, the City SP himself carried out a raid at the factory. Police seized a huge quantity of raw material, Glucose-D packets, packaging machine, weighing machine, a large quantity of wrappers besides 24 bags of powder from the manufacturing unit.
Meanwhile, another raid carried out by Pirbahore police station SHO Asrar Ahmad at a shop, Fashion Times, behind Patna Market, resulted in recovery of a large number of locally made watches being sold in the name of reputed companies.
The City SP said that the police team seized 16 watches, 127 pieces of dial, 200 pieces of coil, 442 pieces of EPV and 14 pieces of half-made watches. He said that one Raquib, a resident of Sultanganj, has been arrested in this connection.
Mumbai Police: Police too busy with VIPs?
MUMBAI: The Pune police's failure to nab a builder's killers over a year and a half after he was shot dead in broad daylight led the Bombay high court to ask if there were enough police personnel to probe cases.
"How many police officers has the state recruited in the last 10 years?" asked a division bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi. The judges took potshots at police deployment for VIP security duty. "It has become a prestige for one person to be accompanied by two police security (personnel)," said the judges, adding, "How many police officers have been deputed for VIP security in the last 10 years?" asked the judges.
During an earlier hearing in the case, the court had come down on the Pune police's 'lethargy' and said that the force seemed so overburdened with VIP and bandobast duty that they could not effectively tackle crime.
Public prosecutor P A Pol said that the police was "well equipped". But this failed to convince the judges, who questioned the lack of progress in the investigations. "You have not identified even one suspect in the case," said the judges.
The court indicated that it may transfer the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and sought the presence of an officer from the investigation agency in court on June 13.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Ashwini, wife of builder Nikhil Rane and a resident of Bhosale Nagar in Pune. Rane was shot by assailants while he was climbing the stairs of his office on November 23, 2009. Rane died seven days later.
The police had arrested four persons for allegedly making extortion calls to Rane prior to his murder. Following investigations, the quartet was charged with offences related to extortion, but no murder charges were filed against them. In her petition, Ashwini claimed that despite repeatedly following up with the Shivajinagar police, the only response that she got was that the "investigation was going on". Ashwini accused the police of not relying on modern investigation techniques and felt the force was "not at all serious about investigating" her husband's murder.
The court had earlier suggested that the police should have a specialized crime investigation department that would not be burdened with bandobast duty.
"How many police officers has the state recruited in the last 10 years?" asked a division bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi. The judges took potshots at police deployment for VIP security duty. "It has become a prestige for one person to be accompanied by two police security (personnel)," said the judges, adding, "How many police officers have been deputed for VIP security in the last 10 years?" asked the judges.
During an earlier hearing in the case, the court had come down on the Pune police's 'lethargy' and said that the force seemed so overburdened with VIP and bandobast duty that they could not effectively tackle crime.
Public prosecutor P A Pol said that the police was "well equipped". But this failed to convince the judges, who questioned the lack of progress in the investigations. "You have not identified even one suspect in the case," said the judges.
The court indicated that it may transfer the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and sought the presence of an officer from the investigation agency in court on June 13.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Ashwini, wife of builder Nikhil Rane and a resident of Bhosale Nagar in Pune. Rane was shot by assailants while he was climbing the stairs of his office on November 23, 2009. Rane died seven days later.
The police had arrested four persons for allegedly making extortion calls to Rane prior to his murder. Following investigations, the quartet was charged with offences related to extortion, but no murder charges were filed against them. In her petition, Ashwini claimed that despite repeatedly following up with the Shivajinagar police, the only response that she got was that the "investigation was going on". Ashwini accused the police of not relying on modern investigation techniques and felt the force was "not at all serious about investigating" her husband's murder.
The court had earlier suggested that the police should have a specialized crime investigation department that would not be burdened with bandobast duty.
MS Police: Cops can note netas' calls: State
MUMBAI: A day after being pulled up by the Bombay high court, the state government on Thursday withdrew its controversial circular that instructed policemen not to record in their station diaries politicians' calls in cases under investigation. It plans to issue another circular which will leave it to the discretion of the police officer on duty to mention or omit a politician's instructions.
A senior Mantralaya official said, "The police manual says that it is for the police officer to decide.'' Home minister R R Patil has instructed the department to rework the draft for issuing a fresh circular, the official added.
A day earlier, while hearing a petition challenging the November 11, 2010 circular of the home department , a division bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and R V More had termed the order as "odd" . The court said that politicians should not make calls to investigating officers. "If they do, why should any police officer be prevented from making an entry of the calls in the station diary?" it asked. The HC said it would decide on the merits of the case if the home department continued with the circular and sought a reply by June 15.
Asenior police officer said the government was forced to withdraw the circular after the high court made it quite clear that it was against such directions. "Last year in the legislative council, some MLAs had expressed their apprehension after the Supreme Court imposed a fine on Vilasrao Deshmukh (see box). The MLAs said they would have no choice but to call up policemen when their voters approached them,'' the officer said.
A senior Mantralaya official said, "The police manual says that it is for the police officer to decide.'' Home minister R R Patil has instructed the department to rework the draft for issuing a fresh circular, the official added.
A day earlier, while hearing a petition challenging the November 11, 2010 circular of the home department , a division bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and R V More had termed the order as "odd" . The court said that politicians should not make calls to investigating officers. "If they do, why should any police officer be prevented from making an entry of the calls in the station diary?" it asked. The HC said it would decide on the merits of the case if the home department continued with the circular and sought a reply by June 15.
Asenior police officer said the government was forced to withdraw the circular after the high court made it quite clear that it was against such directions. "Last year in the legislative council, some MLAs had expressed their apprehension after the Supreme Court imposed a fine on Vilasrao Deshmukh (see box). The MLAs said they would have no choice but to call up policemen when their voters approached them,'' the officer said.
MS Police: After rap, state to revise rules on police diary entries
Hauled up by the Bombay high court over a circular issued in November 2010 directing the police not to record instructions by politicians, the state government has decided to recall the controversial notification. “We will issue another circular saying statements, including those of politicians and
members of the legislature, should be recorded,” said a senior home department official.
The law states that all calls made to police stations by members of the legislative assembly and ministers be recorded in the police diary. But, the department wanted to skip this rule.
The circular was issued after a case was registered by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar against the government for allowing former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s office to misuse powers and make a phone call in 2006 to a police station in Buldhana asking the police to not register a case against a money lender’s politician son.
The Supreme Court pulled up Deshmukh for interfering in police investigations after taking serious note of the diary entry made by the investigating officer. The court observed that the manner in which the constitutional functionaries behaved was ‘shocking’.
The circular, issued by the office of special inspector general Gulabrao Pol, mentioned instances when officers had written down details of their telephonic communication with ‘MLAs’ and produced them in court. The circular stated that no such communication should be mentioned in station diaries henceforth.
A senior IPS officer, on condition of anonymity, had brushed aside concerns, saying investigations would not be affected.
“It is a police officer’s prerogative to note down facts encountered during investigation, and that will continue,” he said.
Understandably, the circular did not go down well with officers who handle investigations. The diary entry was crucial evidence in case of future problems that could arise due to interference by superiors or politicians.
A few months ago, a state minister in the previous Congress government called the Amboli police several times asking them to investigate a robbery in which Rs 50 lakh had gone missing.
He specifically did not want the offence registered. The officers, however, refused to obey the order and made diary entries of all calls.
members of the legislature, should be recorded,” said a senior home department official.
The law states that all calls made to police stations by members of the legislative assembly and ministers be recorded in the police diary. But, the department wanted to skip this rule.
The circular was issued after a case was registered by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar against the government for allowing former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s office to misuse powers and make a phone call in 2006 to a police station in Buldhana asking the police to not register a case against a money lender’s politician son.
The Supreme Court pulled up Deshmukh for interfering in police investigations after taking serious note of the diary entry made by the investigating officer. The court observed that the manner in which the constitutional functionaries behaved was ‘shocking’.
The circular, issued by the office of special inspector general Gulabrao Pol, mentioned instances when officers had written down details of their telephonic communication with ‘MLAs’ and produced them in court. The circular stated that no such communication should be mentioned in station diaries henceforth.
A senior IPS officer, on condition of anonymity, had brushed aside concerns, saying investigations would not be affected.
“It is a police officer’s prerogative to note down facts encountered during investigation, and that will continue,” he said.
Understandably, the circular did not go down well with officers who handle investigations. The diary entry was crucial evidence in case of future problems that could arise due to interference by superiors or politicians.
A few months ago, a state minister in the previous Congress government called the Amboli police several times asking them to investigate a robbery in which Rs 50 lakh had gone missing.
He specifically did not want the offence registered. The officers, however, refused to obey the order and made diary entries of all calls.
CG Police: Maoist rebels kill 15 police in double attack
RAIPUR - Maoist rebels killed 15 police officers in the jungles of Chhattisgarh in two separate bomb blasts, police said on Friday, as the insurgents continued a fresh round of violent attacks on security forces. A bomb attack on two security vehicle killed 10 police and injured three early on Friday morning, a senior police officer said, hours after insurgents shot dead five state policemen in a raid on an armed forces camp. Both the attacks were carried out in forested areas of the mineral rich region where the Maoists are mainly active, and where widespread violence has worried investors and disrupted mining and rail transport. "It was a massive blast," Ram Niwas, additional director general of police (Maoist operation), told Reuters. The anti-landmine vehicle was tossed up in the air by the blast before it landed in pieces, Niwas said. The attack took place 400 km (250 miles) from the state capital, Raipur. A recent crackdown on rebel-controlled areas had raised hopes that the government was winning the battle against what the prime minister has described as India's biggest internal security threat. But the latest string of attacks, including a blast last month that killed seven policemen, has led to fears that security forces are ill-prepared to deal with the threat. The Maoists' violent campaign against the government began as a peasant revolt in the late 1960s. The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the poor and the disenfranchised.
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