Caste lectures for Raj cops to end complaints

JAIPUR: The state police personnel undergoing various training programmes will receive lectures on casteism so that they do don’t differentiate on the basis of caste. And for this, the director general(dg), training, Rajiv Dasot has issued orders to the director of Rajasthan Police Academy, principle and incharge’s of all training schools and centres.

DG training in his order issued on Tuesday said that in a recent law and order review meeting held at the secretariat the issue of flourishing casteism was discussed. “The rising casteism among cops is a matter of great concern and it should be ended,” Dasot said.

“That’s why orders have been issued to all the training centres that special lecture on how to keep themselves away from casteism,” the DG added.

An official in the department who didn’t wanted t be named said that a meeting was held on October 4 at the secretariat in which the issue was raised. Senior home officials have been receiving complaints about cops who allegedly resorted to discrimination on the basis of caste and community, while dealing with cases. “The home department and the office of the director general of police (DGP) have been receiving complaints on cops who discriminated on the basis of caste.

In some cases, policemen did not register a case because the accused belonged to their community. On an average, the DGP office received five to seven complaints of this nature, ” the officer said. He added, “In many land dispute and encroachment cases, the policemen were found favouring the accused as he or she belonged to his community. Many complaints on caste-based discrimination against cops were found to be true after which a decision was taken to train them. Every officer will go through multiple-level of training at different levels, so through this initiative an officer of every rank will be covered.”

Retired police officers also welcomed the initiative taken by the police headquarters. “Casteism is a social problem and at the end of the day even a cop is from society and he or she is also a human being. Special training will help them realise that cops have a major role in maintaining the social equilibrium and that they cannot distinguish people on the basis of caste, community or creed,” said Mahendra Choudhary, a retired police officer.