Thanni Illatha Kaatukku

If you are from India and if you have watched a good amount of Indian movies, be it Hindi, Tamil or Telugu, It is almost inevitable that you would have missed a scene were a corrupt politician transferring an honest police officer to a no man’s land (Thanni Illatha Kaatuku) for interfering in his business which always pertains to corruption, women and rowdism. This not only happens in movies. It’s the reality too. Many times the politicians use this as a weapon for their self-aggrandizement. This hampers the development of a particular district when the district officer becomes the target, the case on a which a CBI officer works when he is a target and so on. Some of you might have known that the only posts which enjoys a minimum tenure of two years are the Cabinet Secretary and Directors, CBI and Enforcement Directorate. Recently the central government has added Home Secretary, Defence Secretary and Directors, IB and RAW.

The next in the list of posts on which the politicians had been using their power with impunity for a long time are the district officers and the police officers.

“A study of postings of Indian Police Service officers in the districts of Uttar Pradesh during 2004 shows that as many as 153 officers headed the police forces in 70 districts during the year at an average of about 2.2 per district. Four Superintendents of Police headed each district police force in Kushinagar, Jalaun, Mainpuri, Ferozabad and Baghpat and 17 districts saw at least three officers heading each of their police forces during the year. In other words, an officer joins the district and remains there on an average for 3 or 4 months before a new man comes to take over from him.

Corruption is not the only motive. It is done not only to reward but also to punish. This is one way to bend the entire district administration to one's will. In August 1979, the National Police Commission (NPC) stated that transfer and suspension are two weapons frequently used by the politician to bend the police officers to his will. The absence of a sound transfer policy is playing havoc with the morale of officers. But besides harming the morale, it is damaging the whole ethos and efficiency of the administrative system. One, frequent changes in the administrative heads of the districts result in poor and delayed implementation of government policies. It takes a fairly long time for the district chiefs to get acquainted with the problems of their districts, establish rapport with the community leaders and plan the implementation of policies to solve people's difficulties. "

Source:The Hindu

This is the same reason we can see the governors, commissioners and senior police officers, getting transferred when there is a change of power in the state, which is highly unacceptable. Rules like this will surely act as a check on all these, hopefully !!!