Author: Shaibal Gupta
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 24, 2005
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=65311
Introduction: There is no money
to create an efficient police force in a state that seems to have fallen
off the Plan map
Way back in the Eighties, large-scale
kidnappings were carried out for the first time in one of the most feudal
districts of north Bihar. It was the joint handiwork of a member of Parliament,
also the son of a former chief minister of the state, and an IPS officer.
The criminal specificity of Bihar was later aggravated by the loot and
pauperisation of the state by several non-banking financial companies (NBFC).
Their modus operandi involved collecting
deposits through neighbourhood boys. Those boys in turn collected deposits,
in the name of attractive interest rates, through their network of family
and friends. After collection of huge deposits, these fly-by-night operators
disappeared, leaving their deposit collectors high and dry. As the pressure
on these deposit collectors by the clients mounted, they resorted to highway
robberies and kidnappings. These incidents increased manifold after the
collapse of the JVG, a high profile non-banking organisation known for
close political patronage. After all, these types of crimes, specially
those related to kidnapping or interest-trotting non-banking companies,
operate in a society where rent seeking is at a premium and there is absence
of a societal incentive structure of production and productivity.
Looking at the effectiveness of
the state in keeping its house in order, one cannot evade the crucial issue
of its public finance base in controlling crime. Contrary to the general
impression, if one compares the growth rate of crimes related to the IPC
(Indian Penal Code) in Bihar, it is nearly the same as in India as a whole.
In a society like Bihar, which has experienced unprecedented empowerment,
the possibility of 'burking', i.e. non-reporting or lowering of the magnitude
of crime, will not be higher than the national average. However, its record
in the realm of detection and conviction of IPC cases is poorer compared
to the national and international standard. If the world rate in the realm
of detection of crimes is 28 per cent and for India it is 22 per cent,
for Bihar it is still lower, at 13 per cent. In case of conviction, Bihar's
record is extremely dismal; it is as low as 7 per cent. Why is Bihar's
track record in the realm of detection and conviction below the national
standard?
Controlling crime ultimately depends
on the success of detection and conviction. This in turn depends on the
financial resource base of the administration in general and police administration
in particular. India's track record is not better in relation to many developed
countries, because of weak financial base. But Bihar is particularly disadvantaged.
In the matter of non-Plan expenditure, which entails expenditure for maintenance
of the mammoth edifice of government administration, Bihar is the most
disadvantaged; the per capita non-Plan expenditure is the lowest in the
state. Over and above, about Rs 4,000 crore less was transferred to the
Bihar government from 2001 to 2003 from the Central Government under the
non-Plan head because of fall in revenue. Expenditure on overall maintenance
is affected due to this, leading to truncated expenditure in the police
administration. Since the division of the state, the non-Plan expenditure
on police administration between 2002/03 and 2003/4 plummeted by 12 per
cent; further, under the Plan expenditure head, it went down by about 36
per cent, forestalling the possibility of technological gradation, extremely
necessary for a poor state like Bihar convulsed by a million mutinies.
The meagre allotment of funds resulted in one of the highest population-police
ratios in Bihar; about 26,000 vacancies in the department further aggravated
this problem.
Even the police stations and outposts,
especially rural, are not properly equipped. Many a time, in their skirmishes
with criminals, they are unable to match the superior firing power of the
criminals. Over and above, they are practically unexposed to the training
needed for facing the changing crime scenario.
Ironically, the reaction of the
national establishment related to offences under the minor acts gets larger
than life coverage in the media. The celluloid churned out from Bollywood
further reinforces this image, when a dynamic and honest cop is seen to
vanquish singlehandedly a bootlegger's den or illegal casino. These crimes
are, however, mainly organised in the urban or metropolitan enclaves. Thus
the metropolitan police, with much better resources, always appear to be
efficient in solving crimes in contrast to its mofussil counterpart, moving
in a ramshackle jeep or a cycle or a bullock cart.
If Karan Johar is allowed to have
full celluloid play, every metropolitan police post will have a helicopter,
which will be subsidised by the consolidated fund of India. In contrast,
the crimes under IPC which need a protracted process of detection and conviction
get sacrificed at the altar of offences under minor acts, where one is
let off by paying certain damages in terms of monetary value.
(Concluded)
The writer is Member Secretary,
Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Patna
