Maharashtra polls: Advocacy groups want police reforms, representation to women, SCs, STs, minorities

By Our Representative
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Delhi, and Police Reforms Watch (PRW), Mumbai, will be launching an eighteen-day campaign on September 26 in order to “catalyze” voters in Maharashtra, and especially in the city of Mumbai, to “vote for a representative and a party that commits to and is vested in better policing in the state.” In a statement, the two advocacy groups have said, this is being done ahead of the state elections, scheduled on October 15, in order to “blow the whistle for police reforms in Maharashtra.”
The programmes contemplated include a 19 seconds cinema slide in 56 cinema halls four times a day starting on September 26, and ending on October 10, 2014 in 56 cinema halls of Mumbai where. Especially designed by the two NGOs, each slide has a message with the catch phrase 'I am Mumbai...’ A second programme is radio messages which will go live between October 6 and 13, 2014 on three FM radios -- Radio City (91.1) , Radio Fever (104) and Big FM-92.7. The message asks “Mango, Mango, Mango Kaun Dega Sacha Police Sudhar...” (demand, who will deliver police reforms?).
Then there will be a campaign on social media on similar lines. A Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FixPolicingNow already exists, with more than 51,000 followers. Proposing to turn it into “a platform for healthy debates and discussions” ahead of the Maharashtra polls, the NGOs says, it will “gear towards crystallizing public opinion online for better policing in Maharashtra for the upcoming polls.”
A major hallmark of the campaign, said the NGOs, is the whistle. Every message whether radio or the cinema Slides begins with the sound of whistle and also ends with it. Asking people to “come and join us in our campaign for making policing an issue in the forthcoming Maharashtra polls”, it wants voters to "blow the whistle in favour of police reforms".
The campaigners have launched a website, www.policereformswatch.org which will go live on September 27, 2014, and provide details of all the activities for 18 days. Meanwhile, they have drafted a people's manifesto for better policing, titled “Ten Giant Steps to Police Reforms in Maharashtra”, which they want the political parties in the fray to commit to, if they are truly vested in better policing.
The manifesto insists on the need to “prioritize the recruitment of women, minorities and scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs).” It says, “Maharashtra has the highest number of women police, yet it is still to fulfil the Centre’s directive of 33% reservation of women in the police. Police personnel from SCs represent only 11.09% of the police, when the reservation is 13%. Likewise, other backward classes (OBCs) constitute only 11.16% when the actual reservation is 19%. Since there is no data available on the percentage of minorities, we urge the parties to make the representation of minorities in the police a priority issue”.
The police reforms demanded by the NGOs include setting up a woman and child protection desk staffed by women police personnel to record complaints of crimes against women and children; demand to comply with the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) advisories and standing orders on crimes against women; need to separate investigation from the law and order functions; adoption of eight hour duty norm in the civil police; end of misuse of police personnel for non-policing work; and prohibition of ill-treatment and custodial torture.
The manifesto wants repeal of the Maharashtra Police (Amendment and Continuance) Act, 2014, as it allegedly “dilutes and circumvents the Supreme Court order on police reforms”. In fact, it says, the Act was “passed without much debate and discussion when the house was not full.” It insists on the need to a new police Act for the state that would “incorporate element of good policing with active consultations with people from all walks of life from all over the state.”

---

Click HERE for text of the manifesto

Comments

Whistle-blowing IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's wife suspects foul play after truck hits her car

By Nachiketa Desai*
Paranoia has seized Shweta Bhatt, wife of suspended Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, after the car she was driving was rammed in broad day light. According to Shweta Bhatt, it was beacon light-flashing truck without registration number plate. The incident took place on January 7, just a day ahead of the Gujarat High Court was scheduled to take up the bail application of Sanjiv Bhatt, arrested last year for "involvement" in a 23-year-old case.

Call to support IIM-Bangalore professor, censured for seeking action against Uniliver

Counterview Desk
Sections of the Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) across India have strongly reacted to the decision to censure Dr Deepak Malghan, a faulty at IIM-Bangalore. Prabhir Vishnu Poruthiyil, who is faculty at IIM-Tiruchirapalli, has sought wider solidarity with Dr Malghan, saying, "The administration has censured Deepak for merely suggesting a meaningful action against Hindustan Unilever for their abysmal environmental record" by “disinviting” it for campus placement.

99% MGNREGA funds "exhausted", Govt of India makes no additional sanctions: Study

Counterview Desk
A letter, addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and prepared by senior activists led by Aruna Roy on behalf of the Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), and signed, among others, by 80 members of Parliament, has regretted that, despite repeated public statements by his government promising employment and job creation that will boost the country’s growth, the country’s only employment guarantee programme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), “is being systematically undermined.”

Morari Bapu, who has installed new statues of Ram, Laxman, Hanuman without weapons

By Sandeep Pandey*
A saint is one who can give some inner peace by his/her voice. This will happen only when s(he) will talk about love and harmony. Morari Bapu is one saint who has been conveying the message of love, peace, harmony, fraternity, etc. Today when a number of saffron clad figures with aggressive posture, spewing venom, fanning hatred to polarise voters are at the forefront of politics of Hindutva it is a relief to see Morari Bapu in a different mould.

Nuclear reactors sought from French giant "not safe": Letter to Modi on Jaitapur project

Counterview Desk
Amidst reports that the French nuclear giant EDF has submitted a “techno-commercial offer” for the world’s largest nuclear power park proposed in Maharashtra’s Jaitapur nuclear power park in Jaitapur on the Maharashtra coast, Dr EAS Sarma, India’s former Union Secretary in the Minister of Power, and an eminent voice in the civil society, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also heads Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), protesting the move.

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

Kerala land being acquired using "draconian, anti-people" National Highway Act, 1956

Counterview Desk
In a letter Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan, senior activists and politicians have insisted that the Kerala government should not agree to "inhuman displacement and buid-operate-transfer (BOT) Toll system", imposed by the Government of India and the National Highway Authority of India, for widening the current National Highway (NH) 66.

Kaiga NPP expansion: Karnataka to get just 400 MW, but lose thick forest, fresh water

Counterview Desk
In an open letter to the chairman and members of the Atomic energy Commission (AEC) on the issue of Kaiga nuclear power plant (NPP) expansion plan in Karnataka, Shankar Sharma, well-known power policy analyst, has argued that that in case of expansion, the site will face “exponential increase in radiation emission risks”, underlining, “Nuclear safety experts identify such a scenario as enhanced risk for NPPs with multiple reactors and shared technical facilities."
Sharma says the questions that also be asked whether Karnataka should lose more than 54 hectares of thick forests and about 152,304 cubic meters of fresh water per day from Kali river for a meager benefit of 400 MW from the Kaiga NPP, for which “there are many benign alternative options available for the state at much lower overall costs to the state.”
Text of the letter: This has reference to the public hearing under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Rule 2006 of Ministry of Environment, Fore…

Uttarakhand High Court: Biodiversity boards can impose fees on Ramdev's Divya Pharmacy

By Mridhu Tandon
In a significant decision, the Uttarakhand High Court on December 21, 2018 has dismissed the writ petition filed by Divya Pharmacy founded by Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balakrishnan, challenging the demand of the Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board (UBB) imposing fees under the provisions of the Fair and Equitable Benefit Sharing (FEBS).

Modi becoming Prime Minister now appears to be an "accident" to the people of India

By Sandeep Pandey*
Anupam Kher's film 'Accidental Prime Minister' has targeted Dr Manmohan Singh who served for two terms and may be again acceptable for the job if his party regains power. But his tormentor Narendra Modi seems to be out of breath even before his first term is over. Disillusionment with him is so widespread and deep that people of India may not bear with him for another term. As the general elections approach again the difference between the two needs to be examined.

Counterview

Search This Blog