Fix tenure to police officials to check political interference: PA

New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) The Police Act Drafting Committee today recommended separation of law and order maintenance and investigative job of police and a fixed tenure of two years to senior police officers and a mechanism to protect police from ''extraneous (political) influence.'' Talking to mediapersons after submitting PADC report to Home Minister Shivraj Patil here, Committee Chairman Soli Sorabjee said the main recommendations were to amend the 145-year-old police act to make policing ''efficient, effective, people friendly and accountable to common people.'' He said the Committee, set up in September last year, has also made recommendations to deal with federal crimes. Stating that recent phenomenon of terrorism, militancy and insurgency have been brought under the scope of the new police act which was not there in the present act.

''However, it will not be like POTA or TADA, just only to equip and train police in the latest techniques to deal with terrorism.'' The new Model Police Act would have provisions for protecting police from extraneous influence by fixing the tenure of service of senior police officers. Asserting that police is servant of law and not of politicians, the PADC has recommended that anyone found influencing the police would be penalised. A Committee would be set up to hear the complaints of policemen about political interference.

He said that the Committee felt that the police should reflect the composition of the society with adequate representation of women, minorities and other weaker sections of the society. This would help in alleviating apprehensions among the minorities about the role of police during riots, Dr Sorabjee said.

The recommendations of the PADC would now be sent to Law Ministry for final touches and is likely to be presented before Parliament in the winter session.

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