In the wake of the Jat agitation that dramatically exposed its shortcomings, the Haryana police is mulling new ways to keep its police personnel be in touch with the going-ons at a village level through sarpanches and other pointsmen. The Hisar range police Saturday will roll out a pilot scheme of village “adoption”, which the Director General of Police, K P Singh, said could be extended to other areas. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSPs), inspectors and other officers of five districts in the area — Jind, Sirsa, Hisar, Bhiwani and Fatehbad — have been directed to “adopt” villages with high crime rates in this belt. If any youth of an adopted village gets involved in any crime in the area, the policeman, who has adopted the village, would be held responsible. “We will first implement this programme in Hisar range and later it would be extended to other areas,” DGP Singh told The Indian Express. Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) Ram Niwas said that after Jat agitation, they were focussing more on “soft policing” and bridging the “trust deficit”. “Rather than hard policing, our focus is more on soft policing now. All DSPs and SPs of various districts have been directed to chalk out innovative ways by which they can bridge the trust deficit. They have been asked to regularly meet the villagers, stay in touch with them because from there they would get the real feedback.” Though the government has left it to the district level administration to chalk out innovative ways by which they can build a connection with the sarpanches and panches, the ACS has made it mandatory for DCs and SPs to visit at least two villages every fortnight and even spend a night in a village once a month. As many as 340 vulnerable villages in the Hisar range(Jind, Fatehbad, Sirsa, Hisar and Bhiwani), described by the police as “crime infested” have been identified for adoption of which fifty villages (ten villages from each district) would be taken on pilot basis. According to IGP Hisar Range O P Singh, a crime infested village is one where a high number of incidents of violent crime are reported such as shooting brawls, with a high incidence of illegal arms possession. “Cases of brawls, violence in these villages are 40 per cent more than that of other villages. In last 26 days, in one of these villages, 80 illegal arms have been recovered. So what are these arms kept for? Even if there is a fight, people here take out their weapons. So, we want these problems to be solved amicably,” he said. The IGP, who said the violent Jat agitation was a free run for local criminal elements who looted and committed arson, has issued orders that two policemen would be in charge of each of the identified villages where they would not only keep a regular check on the movement of criminal elements but would also instill confidence in villagers by regularly visiting and helping them out. “Apart from identifying criminals, policemen who adopt the village will act as a link officer between the youth there and the government. Instead of being driven to the world of crime after seeing local criminals of their area, the youth would be encouraged to engage their energy in constructive works,” IGP Singh said. The programme is to be called Mission CIVA (Crime Infested Village Adoption). Singh said the tag of Crime Infested Vilage would be taken off once the number of these cases come down in these villages. Policemen will be required to visit their adopted village every week, for regular meetings and rapport building with people.
