Bengaluru City Police to be restructured on GBA lines?
Close to a year after the Karnataka government restructured Bengaluru’s civic governance with multiple corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), it is all set
Close to a year after the Karnataka government restructured Bengaluru’s civic governance with multiple corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), it is all set to restructure the Bengaluru City Police (BCP) on the same lines, according to sources. Under the proposed system, the BCP will likely be split into five police commissionerates roughly congruent with the boundaries of the five city corporations and will be headed by a Chief Police Commissioner at the city level, like the GBA. The BCP is also expected to receive a boost with over 6,000 new additional sanctioned posts and over ₹700 crore funds, the sources said. Home Minister Priyank Kharge told The Hindu that the pros and cons of the proposal are still being studied, and a final decision is yet to be taken.
He, however, added that a restructuring exercise was likely soon. The sources said that with Seemant Kumar Singh completing over a year as Police Commissioner, a new commissioner will be appointed only after the restructuring exercise. Five commissionerates The proposal being considered will carve out five police commissionerates in the city – Central, East, West, North and South – similar to the five city corporations. These commissionerates will have two to four law and order divisions and one to two traffic divisions headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) each. The new police divisions will be carved out to further decentralise the police administration and oversight, the sources said. Chief commissioner As a counterpart of the GBA’s Chief Commissioner, the BCP will also have a Chief Commissioner at the city level who will coordinate between the five corporations and hold several key functions, mainly the Central Crime Branch (CCB) himself.
The Chief Commissioner will likely be aided by Additional Commissioners for Law and Order, Crime, Traffic, Intelligence and Administration. He or she will also hold direct charge of the City Armed Reserve (CAR), the city’s own rapid action force and the Command and Control Centre, which coordinates police-public response interface. Dual authority Several senior officers have raised concerns over dual authorities with Commissioners of Police of the five commissionerates and the Additional Commissioners for Law and Order and Traffic under the Chief Commissioner will create. Many have also argued that traffic in one part of the city has a direct snowball effect on another and splitting traffic under five commissionerates may be counterproductive. However, sources in the government argued that such a system was working fine in the GBA. The sources said the commissioners for the five commissionerates will likely be of Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) rank, the Additional Commissioners of the Inspector-General of Police (IG) rank and the Chief Commissioner of the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) rank, maintaining clear hierarchy and chain of command.
The BriefWire