City police to put juvenile welfare officers in all 162 stations

The Delhi police is reportedly in the process of designating juvenile welfare officers in each of its 162 police stations across the city. At present, only six city police stations have designated juvenile welfare officers. The matter came to light at a recent high-level meeting where police commissioner Alok Kumar Verma issued a series of directions for introducing other welfare measure for his force.

When a senior officer informed the commissioner that only six police stations had designated juvenile welfare officers, Mr Kumar said standing orders of the court should be immediately examined on this matter. He said if the order stated that there should be a welfare officer exclusively to deal with juveniles, then the police force should act accordingly.

He suggested that each police station should have a juvenile welfare officer, whose phone number should be made available so that he or she can be reached any time for carrying out investigation. He even suggested that a monthly system should be devised with the help of NGOs for training of these officers.

On the issue of the security of the city juvenile homes, Mr Verma directed joint commissioners of each range to visit these homes to access security needs.

He also directed his officers to collect and analyse phonecall data received from children by the thana-level committees. The police chief gave directions that accountability of the supervisory officers should be fixed for the involvement of their subordinate staff in any illegal activity. He emphasised that all supervisory officers need to be very alert and they should meticulous keep track of their staff on duty hours.

Mr Verma directed his officers to provide force for carrying out demolitions and displacements of encroachments on public land. However, he made it clear that in case of unauthorised constructions, force should be provided only after an assessment report is prepared with the help of the special branch and the same is sent to the police headquarters.

Mr Verma directed his officers to accord top priority for repairing residential complexes and police stations, which are in a bad condition. He said infrastructure of the force’s nine community halls should also be improved.

Besides, he said, the Central Hall of the Malviya Nagar police station should be thrown open to the families of police personnel for organising birthday parties and other functions.

He told his officers to contact Mother Dairy and Safal outlets so that they could allot their shops to the retired police officers. He added that Axis Bank should be approached to employ retired police personnel to guard their ATMs.

The police chief also ordered the special commissioner (training) to constitute a group of four to five officers who could be taught de-stress techniques.

He directed the special commissioner (welfare) to collect the details from the special commissioner (training) for organising workshops on de-stressing and counselling for the families of personnel living in police colonies.