Bengal govt plans special body to address complaints against police

Kolkata, July 25 (IANS) The West Bengal government has decided to form a special body to address complaints against police.Sources in the state secretariat said that often people have to approach the court in case of a complaint against the police, who are supposed to address the grievances of the people.Although the formal notification on this count is yet to be issued by the state secretariat, insiders said that the said body christened ‘State Police Complaints Authority’ will be a four-member body headed by a retired judge of the Calcutta High Court.The other three members of the proposed body will be a senior bureaucrat and two senior police officers attached to the state government. While this four-member entity will be the nodal and state-level body, sources said, there are plans to form subordinate district-level bodies.It is learnt that in case of any complaint or grievance against the police, the citizens concerned can first approach the concerned district-level body and seek remedies. In case the grievance or grievances are not settled there, the next step would be to approach the four-member nodal body.Sources said that the move is mooted to relieve the citizens of the hassles of approaching the court in case of any complaint or grievance against the police. Currently, at Calcutta High Court alone there are 3,500 such pending cases on complaints relating to inaction or hyper-action on the part of the police.In the past, it has been noted several times that the opposition parties or even individual forums had to approach the Calcutta High Court after being denied police permission to conduct a rally or a meeting at any particular, and in most cases the court permitted them.On several occasions, different judges of the Calcutta High Court have even raised the question of why individuals or organisations have to approach the court every time to get permission on this count.–IANSsrc/dpb