Fighting corruption: Una cops barred from carrying over ₹200

DHARAMSHALA: In a bid to curb corruption by police officials, the Una district police chief has issued a directive barring police personnel deployed on interstate barriers from keeping over ₹200 with them.

The directive came into force from Saturday. Una superitendent of police (SP) Diwakar Sharma said the decision was taken after he received several complaints about policemen demanding bribe from pilgrims entering the state.

“We had been receiving complaints for quite some time now, about policemen manning the check posts at border with Punjab demanding bribes from pilgrims on way to shrines in Una and Kangra,” said Sharma.

Una district serves as one of the entry points to Himachal and thousands of pilgrims coming from Punjab to pray at the state’s holy shrines, including Chintpurni, Jawalji and Kangra in monsoon.

“Hence, we decided that no cop deployed at any barrier will be allowed to keep more than ₹200 with him. If a particular cop posted at any check-post wants to keep more than the permissible limit of ₹200 as personal cash with him or her, then the police personnel will have to mention the exact amount in the daily diary of the concerned police station,” Sharma said.

He said surprise raids will be conducted at the check posts and officials violating the directive will be deal with sternly.

In March this year, the SP had caught five cops red-handed while taking bribes from pilgrims at Mubarikpur barrier. They are currently under suspension.

On June 20, Sharma had transferred an entire team deployed at Marwari check-post on suspicion of taking bribe. He also withdrew powers of some cops to issue challans and compound vehicles after they were found guilty of graft.

Despite the strict action taken against the erring officials, there was no letup in the complaints against the cops.

He said that the new directive will help in curbing corruption among the cops and save image of police among the tourists.