MHA ranking: Police stations in NE, south among top performers

The annual ranking of police stations is being done since 2015 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi first made the announcement of the exercise at the DG’s conference in Kutch, Gujarat.

Out of 16,671 police stations in the country, 10 are shortlisted on various performance parameters, including property offences, crimes against women and weaker sections of the society etc. This year, the government introduced three new parameters – ‘missing persons’, ‘unidentified found person’ and ‘unidentified dead bodies’.

“The Union Minister for Home Affairs, Shri Amit Shah has said that a vast majority of police stations shortlisted from the thousands of police stations in the country are police stations located in small towns and rural areas. This is also true for those police stations which have been ranked among the top 10. This indicates that while availability of resources is important, more important is the dedication and sincerity of our police personnel to prevent and control crime and serve the nation,” an MHA statement said.

Last year, Aberdeen police station in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Balaji police station in Mahisagar, Gujarat and Ajk Burhanpur police station in Rajasthan were adjudged the top-three in the country.

MHA officials said this year’s survey was conducted under challenging circumstances as it was difficult to access police stations in remote areas owing to lockdown restrictions.

“The objective was to rank the top 10 Police Stations out of 16,671 Police Stations in the country through data analysis, direct observation and public feedback,” the statement read.

Other police stations in this year’s list are Jhilmili (Chhattisgarh), Sanguem (Goa), Kalighat (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Pakyong (Sikkim), Kanth (UP), Khanvel (Dadra and Nagar Haveli) and Jammikutna Town police station (Telangana), in that order.

In the final stage of the adjudication process, 19 parameters were identified to evaluate the standards of service delivery and identify techniques of improvement in policing. “This part constituted 80 percent of weightage in overall scoring. The balance 20 percent was based on infrastructure of the police station and approachability of personnel and feedback of citizens. The categories of citizens included were from nearby residential areas, nearby markets and citizens leaving police stations. Citizens who were approached for feedback included 4,056 respondents, covering approximately 60 people at each shortlisted location,” the MHA statement said.

Claiming that all states extended full cooperation during the survey, the statement added, “The annual ranking of police stations recognizes the hard work of our police personnel, encourages our police forces and also provides a feedback on many aspects of policing in the country for future guidance. It also provides a picture of the state of physical infrastructure, resources and deficiencies at the level of police stations. The annual exercise of ranking of police stations works as a constant guide for improvements.”