URGENT PRESS STATEMENT
RE: POLICE REFORMS WATCH AND CHRI DEMANDS APPOINTMENT OF THE
MUMBAI POLICE COMMISSIONER WITHOUT ANY FURTHER DELAY. STOP PLAYING POLITICS IN
THIS APPOINTMENT. TO AVOID AD-HOCISM LIKE THIS WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTION
OF POLICE REFORMS.
Police Reforms Watch [PRW] and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
[CHRI] are extremely dismayed at the delay in appointing the Police
Commissioner for Mumbai. The city's police force has been headless for the last
5 days.This opens the city to security risks and makes it more vulnerable to
crime and public order problems. Better policing, with the best leadership in
place, is the need of the hour every hour.
We demand that the Government of Maharashtra appoint a police
chief for the city immediately and in accordance with the Supreme Court's
orders in thePrakash Singh case. We point out once again that the state
government has not complied fully with the 2006 Supreme Court directives on
police reform. It requires the state to appoint the police chief in a more
transparent manner on the basis of objective criteria. This has not been
followed at all.
Police Reforms Watch and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative also
urge the Maharashtra State government to sincerely comply with the letter and
spirit of the now 7 year old directives of the Supreme Court.
I
The increasing public discontent with policing reflects on the
political executive governing the State. We point out that neglect for
people's safety and security, especially the safety of women, is going to be
an issue. We therefore strongly urge the state government to institute a
public review of the working of the police and undertake an area by area survey
of public satisfaction with the police upon which to base future policing. This
policing must be law upholding, responsive, efficient and unbiased. The need
for police reform is too important to ignore and too urgent to delay.
warm regards,
Dolphy Elma Dsouza - 9820226227
Convenor
POLICE REFORMS WATCH
43, Kalina, Santacruz East,
Mumbai 400 029.
Email: [email protected]
