By Imkong Walling
On January 5, there was a government event in Wokha. The Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Home, Y Patton, inaugurated a newly completed office building of the Wokha district Superintendent of Police, and barracks for personnel. The Director General of the Nagaland Police was also in attendance.
It was supposedly a big achievement for the state government. As revealed by the Dy CM, the office of the district police chief has been operating without a proper building for well over 40 years.
The speech trajectory went on expected lines. The occasion was termed as a “red-letter day” for the district police. With the new infrastructure in place, he expressed optimism that it would give a fillip to morale, resulting in improved work efficiency.
The customary words of gratitude went out to the Chief Minister for sanctioning a project — a public infrastructure work, funded by tax-payer money — for which the government should not be sounding so patronising. He made mention of similar infrastructure development initiatives being extended by the government to newly created districts like Niuland, Tseminyu, Noklak and Chümoukedima.
He also touched on police modernisation, a long-held aspiration, and a term liberally tossed about at almost every event relating to policing in Nagaland, noting the importance of adapting to evolving trends.
For much of its history, the Nagaland Police has revolved around maintaining military-styled ‘Armed police’ battalions, a focus that has come at the cost of ignoring civil policing and investigative aids. Only the state government and the police headquarters can provide a clear picture of how Nagaland has fared in modernising its police force — a term trending nationally since the early 1970s — relative to the funds received via the Modernisation of State Police Forces Scheme.
If the Dy CM is to be believed, a low complaints (FIR) registration has had Nagaland losing out on police modernisation funding from Delhi. Patton blamed the state's reliance on customary law for the low FIR count. This traditional approach to settling disputes, including criminal cases, reportedly makes it difficult for Nagaland to justify its need for Central funding to upgrade policing infrastructure.
His statement was preceded by the DGP Rupin Sharma commenting on the link between funding limit and crime rate. According to the DGP, modernisation funds from the Centre are subject to population, number of police stations and FIRs. Nagaland reportedly fails in these counts, which keeps official crime figures artificially low, implying reduced funding to upgrade its policing side of governance. As told by the DGP, there are at least 10 to 12 police stations where fewer than two FIRs are registered annually.
Call it circumstance, but it brings to the fore, once again, Delhi’s one-size-fits-all approach to development— one that leaves smaller states like Nagaland at a disadvantage. Delhi, with all its populist talk, should not allow low FIR count or population to become grounds for limiting the growth of its police forces.
As for the state government, it must realise that it cannot forever afford to lay blame on reduced funding for all its failures, while seldom taking the effort to generate and allocate state funds.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
