Will this PIL make us safe? ……….Chaitraly Deshmukh
Post 13/02, there have been many reports on how our police force is short on men and the ones we have are deployed to protect politicians and other VIPs. An NGO has filed a Public Interest Litigation, hoping the HC will direct the government to stop this
Close on the heels of the German Bakery bombing, Pune based NGO Association for Aiding Justice, has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court in hopes that the Central Government, State Government and Maharashtras Director General of Police (DGP) will be spurred to take immediate and effective measures and to deploy adequate security to control any further terrorist attacks.
The PIL, that was moved through NGO member Ram Keswani through his lawyer Ritesh Mehta, alleges that the terrorists have been taking advantage of internal disturbances caused by parties like Maharashtra Navinirman Sena(MNS) and the Shiv Sena and the deployment of large number of policemen to protect VVIPs even though the force is short staffed.
The petition has sought the courts directives to the government and the police force to deal with issues pertaining to providing security to VVIPs, drafting policies regarding dealing with internal rivalry and also a priority list of purposes warranting deployment of policemen. It has also requested the court to order the DGP to form strategy to overcome manpower shortage faced by the force.
The PIL also requested the court to direct the government and the po-lice to review security provided to VIPs and VVIPs, to release policemen wherever possible from VIP protection duty and use them for public security.
The litigation pointed out that the 26/11 terror attack took place at a time when Mumbai was disturbed due to the MNS anti-North Indian agitation and German Bakery blast came at a time when there was tension in Pune over Shiv Senas stance on the film My Name is Khan and participation of Australian players in Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.
It stated that political parties think of themselves as creators and forefathers of their states and are in a position to hold the state to ransom.
Quoting news reports that politicians topped the list of people enjoying police protection, the petition asked for reduction of the force being deployed to provide security to VIPs and VVIPs.
It pointed out that the Mumbai police has been providing security cover to 1,600 people. It pleaded that, along the lines of the US and the UK, protection be provided only to constitutional heads like the President, Vice President, Prime Minister and Supreme Court Chief Justice.