Just close the circuit of crime patrol
30 July 2013 8:47 PM GMT
What is the common thread running through the sad stories like Delhi gang rape, rain-fed disaster in Char Dham and the poisoning of mid-day meals that killed 27 innocent hungry schoolchildren in a Bihar village in Saran district? It is the absence of a system, a process in governance vital for running the daily routine in order.
What is this system? Ask quality professionals, they would say there are systems in place, and that is why many of Indian organisations have won the ISO certification. They would be vocal in self-defence, if you call the spade a spade, and remind them that mere certification does not train or teach. It is the hands-on work from the grassroots under a foolproof system, which does.
There is a difference between getting certified by armchair experts ensconced in air-conditioned recluses and learning at the brass tacks for a recognition. What then is the system?
CCTV for crime detection
In a large city like Delhi, which is expanding every year with new townships, ever-growing floating population, new monthly settlers, it is humanly impossible for the police to keep surveillance on roads, localities, bazaars, and all other nooks and corners of the city.
Though Delhi police is probably the luckiest among all other state police teams enjoying the latest weapons, infrastructure and logistics on their beck and call, they seriously lack in one simple thing, adequate CCTV surveillance. The top cops have repeatedly asked in the past for total CCTV surveillance of the city roads, corners, hotels, motels, restaurants, vantage points, market places, bazaars and crowded public places. It is the like absence of a vital screw in a spacecraft, which is shattered soon after taking off as there is no screw to hold the body. The tiny screw is important because absence of it causes huge losses in man and material. The CCTV is the tiny ingredient in the surveillance infrastructure that is vital for spotting crimes and criminals. Had CCTV mechanism been in place, the Delhi gang rape incident might not have happened. Is it costlier to put in place a solid CCTV mechanism than all the non-Plan area expenses, which actually go waste in the economy?
Ask yourself, says India head of global professional trainers American Society for Quality, Amit Chatterjee, why on the roads in Dubai or other cities of the UAE, we don’t get a particle of dust anywhere, despite the fact that UAE is indeed a desert-based country? It is because there is a system in place. Why ordinary crimes do not take place in these cities? There is a system of basic surveillance like the CCTV.
Governance is fundamentally dependent upon common sense. Common sense demands common understanding of preventive measures. And mind you, preventive measures are less expensive than damage control and reconstruction. Â
At a recent ASQ survey of 2,200 top corporations in 22 countries, it has been found that India stands ninth after Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France and Germany (in order of merit), where the top corporations and top governmental and private organisations have applied Quality tools after acquiring Quality training and education from the basic stage.
Whenever a gory thing takes place in the country, we all start talking that definitely something is lacking in the system, and then we forget and go on doing the same mistakes, which caused the violent incidents. It is the will to apply the system and maintain it, which is lacking. Had there been the CCTV on the desolate Vasant Kunj road, the Delhi gang rape might not have taken place at all. Or the erratic movement of the school bus could have been spotted by the PCR much before the crime might have been committed. If there was a system in place in the concept of police jurisdiction, the victims could have been put on treatment much before when they were indeed put. Jurisdiction or not, it is the primordial duty of any security personnel to come to help of the victims under such circumstances. Therefore, the concept of governance failed here too, and abysmally.
Violation of Environment Protection Act
Adherence to the laws calls for integrity and rigid maintenance of the laid down system. There is no reason to believe that the Environment Protection Act was not flouted while the hotels, tourist spots, buildings were allowed to come up cutting the course of the rivers, stopping or removing the natural streams and drainage system atop the hills, or weakening the hills’ eco-system by greedy construction sprees.
The system was called for adherence to it, and who would have done it? It is the groups of watchdogs like town municipalities, local policemen, state forest department official, the roving NGOs, the pro-active judiciary, and environment reporters. Evidently, the environment reporters never had the hawkish eyes, so failed to spot the irregularities of constructions and the complicity of certain section of officials in the authorities that went with them.
How the entire group of watchdogs was duped to believe that there would not be any consequence if nature were cut to human designs? Rain in hills are torrential and heavy, yet not like the typhoons or cyclones powerful enough to demolish the townships and their rural areas.
We shall not be surprised if similar disasters take place again in future, and if the authorities were not taking the preventive steps now onwards, the damage control and reconstruction would call for great losses to the national fortune. Already the reconstruction in the Char Dham area would be emptying up huge reservoir of funds.   Â
What is this system? Ask quality professionals, they would say there are systems in place, and that is why many of Indian organisations have won the ISO certification. They would be vocal in self-defence, if you call the spade a spade, and remind them that mere certification does not train or teach. It is the hands-on work from the grassroots under a foolproof system, which does.
There is a difference between getting certified by armchair experts ensconced in air-conditioned recluses and learning at the brass tacks for a recognition. What then is the system?
CCTV for crime detection
In a large city like Delhi, which is expanding every year with new townships, ever-growing floating population, new monthly settlers, it is humanly impossible for the police to keep surveillance on roads, localities, bazaars, and all other nooks and corners of the city.
Though Delhi police is probably the luckiest among all other state police teams enjoying the latest weapons, infrastructure and logistics on their beck and call, they seriously lack in one simple thing, adequate CCTV surveillance. The top cops have repeatedly asked in the past for total CCTV surveillance of the city roads, corners, hotels, motels, restaurants, vantage points, market places, bazaars and crowded public places. It is the like absence of a vital screw in a spacecraft, which is shattered soon after taking off as there is no screw to hold the body. The tiny screw is important because absence of it causes huge losses in man and material. The CCTV is the tiny ingredient in the surveillance infrastructure that is vital for spotting crimes and criminals. Had CCTV mechanism been in place, the Delhi gang rape incident might not have happened. Is it costlier to put in place a solid CCTV mechanism than all the non-Plan area expenses, which actually go waste in the economy?
Ask yourself, says India head of global professional trainers American Society for Quality, Amit Chatterjee, why on the roads in Dubai or other cities of the UAE, we don’t get a particle of dust anywhere, despite the fact that UAE is indeed a desert-based country? It is because there is a system in place. Why ordinary crimes do not take place in these cities? There is a system of basic surveillance like the CCTV.
Governance is fundamentally dependent upon common sense. Common sense demands common understanding of preventive measures. And mind you, preventive measures are less expensive than damage control and reconstruction. Â
At a recent ASQ survey of 2,200 top corporations in 22 countries, it has been found that India stands ninth after Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France and Germany (in order of merit), where the top corporations and top governmental and private organisations have applied Quality tools after acquiring Quality training and education from the basic stage.
Whenever a gory thing takes place in the country, we all start talking that definitely something is lacking in the system, and then we forget and go on doing the same mistakes, which caused the violent incidents. It is the will to apply the system and maintain it, which is lacking. Had there been the CCTV on the desolate Vasant Kunj road, the Delhi gang rape might not have taken place at all. Or the erratic movement of the school bus could have been spotted by the PCR much before the crime might have been committed. If there was a system in place in the concept of police jurisdiction, the victims could have been put on treatment much before when they were indeed put. Jurisdiction or not, it is the primordial duty of any security personnel to come to help of the victims under such circumstances. Therefore, the concept of governance failed here too, and abysmally.
Violation of Environment Protection Act
Adherence to the laws calls for integrity and rigid maintenance of the laid down system. There is no reason to believe that the Environment Protection Act was not flouted while the hotels, tourist spots, buildings were allowed to come up cutting the course of the rivers, stopping or removing the natural streams and drainage system atop the hills, or weakening the hills’ eco-system by greedy construction sprees.
The system was called for adherence to it, and who would have done it? It is the groups of watchdogs like town municipalities, local policemen, state forest department official, the roving NGOs, the pro-active judiciary, and environment reporters. Evidently, the environment reporters never had the hawkish eyes, so failed to spot the irregularities of constructions and the complicity of certain section of officials in the authorities that went with them.
How the entire group of watchdogs was duped to believe that there would not be any consequence if nature were cut to human designs? Rain in hills are torrential and heavy, yet not like the typhoons or cyclones powerful enough to demolish the townships and their rural areas.
We shall not be surprised if similar disasters take place again in future, and if the authorities were not taking the preventive steps now onwards, the damage control and reconstruction would call for great losses to the national fortune. Already the reconstruction in the Char Dham area would be emptying up huge reservoir of funds.   Â
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