Centre to copy Akhilesh Yadav’s new Police policy?

The central government has liked the concept of Transparency in Recruitment Process (TRP) so much that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's SMART Police plan will draw inspiration from it. The process was started by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to recruit the state police.

Union Home Secretary LC Goyal has chaired a meeting on May 25 to discuss progress made on the SMART Police plan. In the meeting, he has praised the TRP system and termed it as a "commendable system worthy of replication by all states", an Economic Times report stated.

What is this TRP system? It involves minimum human intervention in the evaluation process of possible recruits based on automated criteria, online documentation of their performance during trials, which is available to all for review for maximum transparency, and minimises discretion along with incorporating a prompt grievance system for rejected candidates.

"Police recruitment exercises have been infamous for corruption and favouritism. The system introduced by UP Police is a landmark system," a senior home ministry official said.

In the meeting, Goyal decided to obtain a status report from the UP government on TRP to incorporate it into the SMART Police plan, as per the financial daily.

The SMART Police plan was announced by the Prime Minister in December 2014 and the Ministry of Home Affairs is currently working on it.

In the past two months, the ministry has held four regional workshops at Bengaluru, Bhopal, Guwahati and Chandigarh to study over 50 best police practices followed in various states.

Goyal, at the May 25 meet, shortlisted five such practices, which will be examined further for replication across India. These include a web-based system for filing of complaints and FIRs, a mobile application for distress assistance on the lines of the HIMMAT application of the Delhi Police, a web-based court cases monitoring system on the lines of the model followed in Vijaywada, e-challans for traffic offences and Vehicle Database Access on the models of the Delhi Police, Gujarat Police and Karnataka Police, and a community policing initiative in Khanna by Punjab Police.
(Image: Indiatimes)