THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state police is again paying the price for the half-baked reform of the LDF government to make circle-inspectors (CIs) station house officers (SHOs) of police stations in a phased manner. The reform came into effect from this January. While 196 CIs of law and order were made SHOs of 196 police stations, as many as 268 police stations have lost the supervision by CIs and have been brought under the control of the DySPs of the sub-divisions concerned. This has affected effective supervision over the police stations headed by SIs as the DySPs have more stations under them.
Incidentally, the Varappuzha police station in Ernakulam rural, Kovalam police station in Thiruvananthapuram and now the Gandhi Nagar police station in Kottayam, which have been in the news for serious lapses, are among the 269 police stations. While the Varappuzha police station witnessed the custodial death of Sreejith, the Kovalam police came under criticism for alleged apathy towards Lativian tourist's case. Now Gandhi Nagar police are also facing allegation of ignoring a woman's complaint regarding her husband's abduction.
"There are a lot of practical issues and confusion as about 200 police stations are having CIs as SHOs and the remaining 269 having SIs as SHOs. The SIs obviously have a communication gap with the DySPs compared to that with CIs. Moreover, effective supervision of DySPs at the police stations headed by SHOs is also not happening. These affect the overall functioning of the police stations headed by SIs," said a senior police officer.
The government was compelled to implement the reform in a phased manner due to the fiscal burden involved in creating CI posts in the 268 police stations. State police chief Loknath Behera and other senior officers have told the government about the issues caused by the half-baked reform, sources said.
