Relax criterion for Inspectors, SIs promotion

BHUBANESWAR: The Assembly Standing Committee on Home Department has advised the State Government to initiate measures to reduce the present qualifying service period of seven to five years for sub-inspectors to get promotion to inspector posts. This will help filling up of inspector vacancies. Similarly, the existing qualifying service of five years in the post of inspectors should be reduced to three years for filling up of the vacancies in the DSP posts, it added. The Committee has recommended that measures be expedited to accord approval to the proposals for framing of cadre rule of the Odisha Police Service (OPS) and OPS (Armed) and restructuring of their cadre so as to facilitate filling up the vacancies in the middle-level supervisory posts. As regards promotion in the reserve category to DSP, the committee maintained that the ambiguity arising in the matter should be sorted out in consultation with the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development Department and Law Department. The Committee noted with concern that FIRs, lodged by the victims or any of their kin, are not entertained and registered in police stations most of the time. As a consequence, the guilty go scot-free, the report said.  As a result, it said, victims fail to get justice and lose confidence in the police administration. The panel recommended that all FIRs, lodged at the police stations, be registered and entered into within seven days. Only cognisable offences should be taken into consideration and registered in the final FIR register, it said. The non-cognisable cases should be excluded at the police station-level after inquiry, it added. Supply of a copy of the FIR to the person, lodging the same, be made mandatory within 24 hours of its registration, it said. All the cases relating to women, murder and injury should be registered in a final FIR register and action taken for their speedy disposal, the committee said. The process of inquiry and disposal of the FIRs should be monitored by the supervising officer at regular intervals. Any deviation or exception in this regard be viewed seriously and stringent disciplinary action initiated against the erring police official, it added.