Govt to regulate private detectives

New Dehi, Nov 23 (UNI) Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said here today the Centre proposes to bring forward a legislation to regulate the activities of private detective agencies.

Speaking at the valedictory of a two-day seminar on ''Synergy Between Private and Public Sector Security System in India,'' he said the new legislation would be modelled on the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005.

He said the government did not really want to regulate private security agencies, but only wanted to ensure that they were reliable and were in a position to give succour and assistance to the people.

''The law on private agencies is less for regulating and more for encouraging such agencies to complement the efforts of the police,'' he said.

Pointing out that the country had a police force of about 2.2 million for one billion population with a meagre network of about 12,000 police stations, he said the people-police ratio in India was the lowest in the world and was really disappointing. ''It is not possible for the policemen at this strength to reach out to 8,50,000 villages, towns and cities and provide help and succour.'' In this context, Mr Patil said the government proposed to reintroduce the old ''Kotwal'' system so that at least one village man could be recruited to give police the necessary information within his area. There was also a proposal to set up peace committes in villages and wards in cities so that the volunteers attached to them could share information with the police.

Saying there were about five million private securitymen in the country, the minister suggested that a synergy between them and the police system could bring out good results on the law and order front. ''This will help relax the unbearable burden of the police force.'' Stressing that efforts were being made to strengthen the police force, Mr Patil said the government would also rely on private agencies. ''However, the government would be the final authority on matters relating to security,'' he added.

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