Newly appointed Director General of Police (DGP) Idashisha Nongrang admitted on the first day of her new job that police personnel in the state force are known to accept bribes and payoffs from truckers but has promised to crack down on the matter.
Although she said that Meghalaya police are some of the most disciplined in the country, the state’s first female top cop said that the payoffs are giving officers sleepless nights, suggesting that it is a problem confined to the lower ranks.
Police have been accused of taking bribes from truckers to look the other way when the vehicle is overloaded, carrying illegal coal, transporting items without permits, etc.
“It has unfortunately become more open in the last few years,” Nongrang said during an interaction with the press today. “I hope that the message will go down that such things will not be tolerated and if necessary we will take extreme measures to correct that.”
She added that she is not naive to believe that she will be able to wipe this problem during her tenure but assured the public that this will not be a daily affair along the highways of the state.
The new DGP also suggested that the force needs to be more open with the public and not be seen as confrontational.
In this vein, she has decided to have an ‘open house’ every Thursday where the public can meet her from 11am to 2pm. This, the police chief hopes, will change the perception that the men and women in uniform are hostile to the public.
The DGP said that devotion to duty is inherent to the Meghalaya police and there is only a need to re-work, revive and reinvigorate at the level of the constabulary all the way up to the officers.
According to Nongrang, what has happened is that the officers are presently working in silos and not communicating with each other; in the same building they send memos to each other instead of talking face-to-face and this does not lead to camaraderie.
On the issue of recruitment into the force, the DGP said that there is a well-laid plan and the Central Recruitment Board has been very active on the matter.
There is a complaint that there should be age relaxation in the recruitment and a petition in this regard has been filed in court. The hearing is on May 23. She expressed a hope that the court will see that the government has adhered to existing provisions.
On the traffic situation in Shillong, she said that the road capacity has not been able to match the increase in number of vehicles; the city is still largely limited to the roads it had 50 years ago. “There’s been hardly been any widening of the roads and the registration of vehicles has increased many folds over the years,” she added.
Other problems she focused on in the get together included the ever mutating and evolving world of cyber crime and she promised to give plenty of attention.
