Poll Analysis | The Tainted Police Stations
Posted on October 10, 2012
An observation based on bribe reports posted in ipaidabribe.com indicates rampant corruption in the police department. If such law-enforcing agencies misuse their position to extort money, then how can we free India of corruption? The common man is then left with no resort to deal with such situations.
The majority of complaints that we have received is against the police department that exhibits a high prevalence rate of corruption. Ever since its launch in August 2010, a total of 3900 bribe reports, with a value of Rs. 1,43,10,839 has been reported on our website.
In an interview with ZeeTV, Geeta Luthra, a Senior Advocate in Supreme Court of India opines, “Police is one of the scariest examples of corruption.”
What do you think are the causes for increasing corruption cases against policemen? Shanti Bhushan, as stated in The Hindu, said that the police in India is corrupt because it was set up by the Imperial British government to preserve the colonial rule rather than to serve the people. Several commissions, including the Dharam Vira Police Commission (1982) and the First Administrative Reforms Commission(1966), have recommended a comprehensive restructuring of the Indian police. Similarly, the Supreme Court has ordered for such restructuring. But successive governments have resisted these reforms because this might take away their discretionary powers over policemen.
Moreover, a common justification given for the rampant corruption in the police department is their low salaries. Considering this, we posted a poll question asking, “Are policemen justified in asking for bribes considering their low salaries?”
Surprisingly, 80 per cent of the voters think that it is unreasonable to extort money from people based on the excuse of low salaries while the remaining 20 per cent of the voters feel that the salaries of policemen should be hiked to restrain them from taking bribes.
Policemen play one of the most imperative and effective roles in making a country corruption-free. To eradicate corruption from India, some stringent legislations have to be enacted to make the police department accountable. Police in India also need to inculcate values and ethics and refrain from carrying out such malpractices.