Police Congress in India''s northeast calls for better training

Indian PoliceGuwahati, Jan. 22: The 39th All India Police Science Congress at Guwahati in India''s northeast Assam has called for better training and motivation of police personnel to fight urban terrorism.

The three-day Police Congress recommended separation of investigation from maintenance of law and order. It also suggested an increase in the police-population ratio across India.

Senior police officials called for advance planning to fight urban terrorism efficiently.

"We do have all the equipments required for the urban terrorism but we do not have them in sufficient numbers. Importing weapons is a long process. If you start today, you will be lucky if you get it next year. So advanced planning and faster means of procurement is what is needed," said Koshy Koshy, Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).

Koshy advocated the need for replacing the traditional arms and weapons with sophisticated weapons and gadgets.

The Meghalaya Governor R. S. Mooshahary expressed his dissatisfaction over the police performance in booking culprits and convicting them. He hoped that better training and motivation would enable the force to change its `culture'.

The Meghalaya Governor also said that the state police had to tackle quite different problems from the other parts of the nation.

"All the problems that Assam police faces are completely different from the rest of the country. Assam police have got multiple problems like illegal migrants, insurgency, terrorism, militancy, tackling students organizations etc," Mooshahary said.

Mooshahary said the Assam government had brought in a new act to deal with the problems but added that mere enactment of tougher laws will not bring down the crime rate unless police are able to first apprehend and then convict the perpetrators in an efficient manner. (ANI)