Police commissionerate still elusive for M'lore

The Home Ministry itself had assured that Mangalore would be granted commissionerate status on November 1. However, nothing has happened. The entire government is stuck with the political imbroglio.

Speaking to Deccan Herald from New Delhi, Home Minister Dr V S Acharya said though he had assured of announcing the police commissionerate on the Rajyotsava Day, it was not happening due to certain technical reasons.
The government was expected to announce the status on August 15, but it had got postponed to November 1.

The proposal has been on cards for the past one decade, and almost every Home Minister made some assurances on the issue. The first proposal was made after the communal riots in the district in 1998.

With the commencement of direct flights between Mangalore and Middle East and with the growth of New Mangalore Port into a major Exim centre, the urge for a police commissionerate got a new dimension. In the meantime, need for the same became more evident following communal tensions in the coastal districts.

In October 2006, the then Minister for Home and Parliamentary Affairs M P Prakash had stated that “Mangalore would get commissionerate soon”, and in the course of time, several ministers and police authorities had made similar statements.
In the same year, the then ADGP K S Suresh Babu and the Superintendent of Police B Dayananda had submitted a proposal to the government. However, in June 2008, Dr V S Acharya had asked the then IGP A M Prasad to submit a fresh proposal for the same purpose. Again in October, he had announced that Mangalore had been included in the list of four other cities getting the commissionerate status.

Amidst all demands for a commissionerate in Mangalore, there is an argument that what the district police needs is more human resource, but not the commissionerate since it will not help much.

IGP Gopal Hosur said it is an initiative to strengthen the existing system by way of additional resources. “Quality of policing automatically increases with the establishment of a commissionerate which is the need of the hour,” he said. SP Dr A Subrahmanyeshwar Rao said the commisssionerate strengthens the system not only in terms of the number of staff but also in ranks.