The transfer of Calangute Police Inspector Paresh Naik to Goa Reserve Police, Altinho within 24 hours of him sealing a nightclub ‘Down Town’ and arresting bouncers who allegedly beat up two local youth, has stirred a hornet’s nest, which is already grappling with police-public trust deficit.
Police sources confirmed that a sincere and upright officer had been transferred in the aftermath of his taking action against the night club.
It is reported that the owners of the nightclub are from Delhi and the possibility of them having contacts with local IPS officers and government cannot be ruled out.
Sources disclosed that Calangute PI Paresh Naik faced a harrowing three days over the weekend in the aftermath of the assault on local youth Akash and Aman Arlekar from Canca. Initially the complaint was not registered by the Calangute police. However a large number of locals, including family members gathered at the police station and raised a hue and cry demanding action against the night club owners and bouncers.
At a time when crime rate is on the rise in Goa, transferring a police officer for taking action against hooliganism by two bouncers of a nightclub, run by influential owners will certainly send a demoralising signal to the entire police force. On one hand they police are chastised for not performing its duty, on the other hand when a police officer performs his or her duty, he or she is promptly shunted out.
Over the past few decades, a degenerating outgrowth in terms of politicisation of administrative positions has resulted in the use of public offices for partisan political purposes.
Progressively, the political leadership has acquired a definitive say over the continuation of police officers at places of their postings. The constant politicisation of the police has seriously affected its morale, discipline and performance. This has also resulted in polarisation in some States, on religious, caste and ethnic lines, eroding the credibility of the organisation. In fact, honest police officers are demotivated by frequent transfers.
The decline in the average duration of a posting of police officers, and the persistence of a perpetual "sword of transfer" hanging on the head of the officer cadre can prove detrimental to efficient performance of the police force.
The biggest casualty is the lack of communication with subordinate officials. The message that goes down the police rank and file is that personnel can afford to perform indifferently on the crime management front as long as they have political patronage. Often, it is the Station officers who enjoy such patronage, and enjoy powers and protection disproportionate to their rank.
Under the circumstances, the image and authority of the police, despite extraordinary achievements under the most trying circumstances, has suffered tremendously, and has resulted in a tremendous loss of efficiency in the management of law and order situations, and crime. These trends have been compounded by the criminalisation of politics, which has affected police performance more than the performance of any other state institution.
According to a study on the ‘Impact of Frequency of Transfers on Efficiency and Effectiveness of Superintendents of Police’ done by the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the honest, impartial, and efficient officers, as well as those who were not regarded as being ‘convenient’ to ‘powerful politicians’, were prone to be transferred more frequently.
Both the response to the questionnaires and the extensive field interviews conducted as part of the study tended to suggest that the SP had to keep both the local politicians and the political executive ‘satisfied’, if he/she was to continue in a district. Transfers to districts were perceived as being ordered mostly to accommodate officers who manipulate political pressure for the field job, irrespective of their professional conduct or integrity.
The Calangute incident is not the first of its kind and won’t be the last. The question is, how long does the administration intend to toy with the safety of citizens by trying to serve its own vested interests?