Fact check: Is Centre planning to privatise the police?

New Delhi, Jun 22: Even as there are widespread protests against the Centre's new recruitment scheme 'Agnipath', rumours started doing rounds that the government was prepping up for the privatisation of several services in the police department.

A report on a Hindi website claimed that 50 such services including passport verification, escort duty of politicians, police examination settlement, summon delivery, record keeping, police outdoor training will be entrusted to private hands.

The Centre would send the proposal to the state government this month and if the proposal is implemented, more than 10 thousand posts in the police department will be abolished, the report claimed.

"Another controversial proposal is to put the escort duty for politicians in private hands. According to experts, doing so would compromise the security of VIPs. Officers are also fearing misuse in the work like data analysis and records management, etc. However, no one has any objection in giving work like housekeeping, CCTV monitoring, call center management, police vehicle maintenance, software development to private companies," the rough translation of the article read.

People can find the permanent link of that story here:

How True are These Claims?
The Press Information Bureau has clarified that the news doing rounds is "fake." "No such decision has been taken by the Government of India," it tweeted.

हिंदी अखबार @DainikBhaskar की एक खबर में दावा किया गया है कि केंद्र सरकार के एक प्रस्ताव के तहत पुलिस विभाग की कई सेवाएं निजी हाथों में दे दी जाएंगी #PIBFactCheck

▶️ यह खबर #फ़र्ज़ी है

▶️ भारत सरकार द्वारा ऐसा कोई निर्णय नहीं लिया गया है pic.twitter.com/DzYDUqTPVq

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 22, 2022

On checking the government sites, including the Ministry of Home Ministry, there were no reports stating that the government of India has a proposal over the privatisation in the police department. Hence, this is a baseless rumour.