Social media,minorities on agenda as DGPs meet today

CBI Director Ranjit Sinha will speak on how to enforce law in social media.

Law enforcement in social media,getting the police to become more sensitive in dealing with minorities and security of VIPs in an election year are the three key areas of focus at this years conference of police chiefs in Delhi starting Thursday. Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will inaugurate the conference,while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address the gathering on November 23,when he will release a commemorative stamp to mark the completion of 125 years of the Intelligence Bureau.

The session on social media would address vulnerabilities in the cyber space and how to deal with provocative images and messages on the web. Such inflammatory images and messages were one of the key reasons that led to the spread of communal clashes during the Muzaffarnagar riots.

Having dealt with a similar problem that led to the exodus of students from the Northeast studying in Bangalore,the Karnataka Director General of Police is slated to give a detailed presentation on the issue. CBI Director Ranjit Sinha will speak on how to enforce law in social media. Such is the importance being given to this subject that the first half of the opening is dedicated to it.

The medium is intimately linked with freedom of expression and has become a preferred means of communication for millions of people, said a senior official,adding that the conference would deliberate on ways to ensure that the medium is not put to invidious use and a mechanism to counter it.

The second key area is police behaviour in riot situations. A working group led by the home secretary will present a report suggesting ways by which police can be more sensitive in dealing with minorities. This group was constituted at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The DGP of Andhra Pradesh is also slated to give a detailed presentation on using non-lethal weapons for riot control in a bid to ensure minimal casualties,another issue of concern to the UPA government.

The third area,which seems to have received prominence after the Patna serial bomb blasts,will be VIP security. Asif Ibrahim,Director of the Intelligence Bureau,who is also the head of police for the country,will himself handle this session. A specific discussion will be held on security for VIPs in the elections year,given the threat to both Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi.

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Besides this,a session is devoted on establishing an anti-Naxal grid and ensuring the centrality of the police station in operations,an issue that came to fore in the Darbha attack in Chhattisgarh when Naxals attacked in an area that fell in a grey zone between two stations,creating a jurisdictional issue over providing police escorts to the Congress entourage.