President calls upon police forces to combat growing violence

Expressing serious concern over the “worrying bout” of recent communal violence in the country, President Pranab Mukherjee felt that the police should be pro-active service provider and partner in growth, development and peace. At the passing-out parade of 2012 batch IPS trainees at Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Academy (SVP NPA) here on Tuesday, Pranab said, “These are challenging times for our police forces. There has been deterioration in inter-community relations and there is need to strengthen the ability of our district and local administration to notice such tensions in their initial stages and take necessary measures to contain them quickly.

” Exhorting police officials to strive hard to address the grievances of the common man, Mukherjee said the nation was always expecting the highest degree of professionalism and consistent efforts to ensure that the rule of law was enforced in letter and spirit. Stating that the government was committed to deal with Left-wing extremism in a comprehensive manner, Pranab said, “The government was pursuing a twopronged approach of conducting pro-active and sustained operations against extremists and focusing attention on development and governance issues in extremist affected areas.

” The country must meet these challenges “head on”, he said, adding the actions of “our police forces must respect the human rights of the people and the letter and spirit of our constitution”. He noted that India should remain alert as it continues to be targeted by terrorism from abroad. He said when the first Home Minister of India Sardar Vallabhai Patel created the All India Services he had high expectations and wanted civil servants to keep away from politics and communal wrangles. Patel wanted the civil servants to work with utmost impartiality and to be above corruption in administration.

Expressing serious concern over the increasing atrocities against women and children, Pranab said the need of the hour was effective policing in urban areas, especially in the metropolitan cities, so that vulnerable sections can be protected from sexual harassment.He hoped the path-breaking legislation, “protection of children from sexual offence Act and the introduction of sexual harassment of Women at workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) bill, 2012 in the Parliament would contain the social menace in future. He applauded the Police Academy for inducting ‘sensitisation, orientation training’, focusing on vulnerable sections, underprivileged, women, children, minorities and Dalits, in the IPS training.

The President presented trophies to the meritorious IPS trainees. A 25-year-old Himachal Pradesh cadre IPS trainee Shalini Agnihotri received ‘The Prime Minister’s baton and Home Ministry’s Revolver’ for the best all round officer trainee. The IPS Association’s Sword of Honour for the best outdoor officer trainee trophy was conferred on AP cadre IPS trainee R Bhaskaran. Earlier, the President reviewed the parade. Governor ESL Narasimhan, State Major Industries Minister J Geeta Reddy, NPA Director Subhash Goswami and top state police officials were also present.