Two news related to Maharashtra police appeared on the TOI front page today. One was abt the J Dey murder case and second was abt the Maharashtra police being most corrupt in the country.
By arresting some shooters and saying Chotta Rajan gang invovled is NOT solving the case. Everyone would like to know, the whys behind such a supari, if at all. And the corruption data i dont agree with. Its because the overall education n high awareness levels, people would have gone and complained abt bribe demand, harassment etc. Yes, we have our share of corrupt cops, but we most certainly dont lead the nation.
The subsequent reward of INR 10 lakh (or 1million) to the crime branch by home minister R R Patil after "nabbing" the said shooters (of J Dey), is disturbing and alarming. Obviously, this money comes from the state coffers and is made up from the several taxes "we" pay. The usual arguments.
First, the home minister should not have announced this reward. It sets bad precedent. If this reward was announced only cos the crime involves a journo, then this is total BS...
There have been many write ups, blogs, morchas abt how the Police Act is archaic and was drafted when the police were actually "policing" citizens of a slave nation. Post freedom, the reforms never happened and the police still think they are better than the rest of us and have some sort of power and all that, whereas they are meant to be public servants, if not friends to the people of a free country.
The other favourite crib is that of cops' salaries and how poor income leads them to corrupt practices. My point is, why the reward for what "actually" is their job to do? They get salaries to do their job and if this is appreciation, then why for this specific crime?? What makes this team more deserving than all other cops who slog their lives doing their jobs? If the state govt actually has the money to dole out cash rewards, why isnt the money pumped back as part of regular salaries??
If this is sign of times, then perhaps you should stop wasting public money by paying salaries to the cops. Let them get salaries on performance basis - solve a crime and earn money, a commission based system!! At least it will be hard earned money. Make a chart of crimes, and decreasing payment depending on the number of days taken to solve it. Petty crimes, domestic offences, big scandals - solve of all them. And give a deadline. Since the police comes from the society we are part of, they should have deadlines like the rest of us too. Who knows, it might actually increase efficiency!
We have only heard of stories of how our cops have the best information network and how they know of (big) crimes even before they happen. I have heard people brag that if our cops do their jobs properly, no one would even dare to think of committing a crime. Some of it might be old wives tales, but i wont discount all of it.
Lets make a new system which can be a sandwich format - salary + commission - and put a few riders on it to avoid bad practices. For example, the moment the suspects are remanded to custody, they sing confessions in our police stations - and that will be bad for this performance based income system.
The point still is, i am unconvinced with this reward. Its just unacceptable monetary gratification for what is meant to be a minimum job expectation. What RR Patil has done here is given a anti-supari supari to cops. Do your jobs and we will give you a performance bonus.
