Ranking at third position after Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the first two top smart police in India, Assam has emerged as the first smartest police in the Himalayan states. Sikkim at fourth and Mizoram at fifth and Himachal Pradesh at 9th slot have figured among the first top 10 smartest police in the country in the Indian Police Foundation (IPF)survey-2021 released by the Foundation.
Every year IPF tries to find in its survey as to which police is SMART(Sensitive, Strict, Modern, Mobile, Alert, Accountable, Reliable and Responsive) to the satisfaction of the citizens in the country.
SMART initiative is the baby of Prime Minister Narender Modi who had launched the SMART police project about five years ago to make policing people friendly.
According to IPF, the police must uphold the rule of law, respect dignity of an individual and human rights and display an unwavering commitment to lawful methods of policing.
The idea behind the survey is to gauge citizens’ perception of whether or not the SMART policing project has made any perceptible difference in policing in the country.
Gyanandra Pratap Singh, ADGP, Law and Order, Assam while acknowledging the smart policing feat that Assam has achieved, is humble enough when he responds to IPF survey and says, “Real challenge for each one of us is to not let the guard down. Aspirations would be to provide world class policing to the people of Assam. We would do it together”.
After Kerala with 7.53 points at 4th top rank, Assam secured 7.79 points, Sikkim 7.18 points and Mizoram 7.14 points topping the Himalayan states. Himachal Pradesh police got 6.91 points to bag the 9th rank much behind than Andhra Pradesh and Assam.
Uttarakhand police is ranked at 15 with 6.69 points. Meghalaya at 17 with 6.60, Tripura 6.33 Jammu and Kashmir 6.26, Nagaland with 6.11 points figure in the bottom of the survey, calling for a rejig to respond to the citizens of their respective states.
But the policing in Nagaland which figures at the 24rd slot at the bottom with 6.11 marks, Jammu and Kashmir at 6.26 marks , Tripura, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand need a lot of soul searching, comment its citizens on social media while responding to the poor show in survey. They say that the police of these states should learn from Andhra, Telangana, Assam and Kerala police about good and people-friendly policing for “SMARTness”.
As many as 161192 responses were received by the IPF for the survey conducted from July 1 to September 15, 2021 this year in which 24 states participated.
IPF is an independent think tank of professionals and experts from different fields which conducts survey on smart policing progress in the country and provide inputs and training and reforms at its academy through research and development backup.
Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma has congratulated the Assam police for the feat and adopting a proactive approach to counter and prevent crime and ushering in era of peace.
(Kuldeep Chauhan, Editor and Administrator HimbuMail, voice of Himalayan People)
