Restoring balance in civil administration
Responsibilities of DCs and SPs should be clearly delineated
The way the deputy commissioners (DCs) and the police chiefs have fallen out with each other over some, we would like to believe, inadvertent remarks made at a conference of DCs last Sunday is very unfortunate. For these are two vital constituents of the civil administration and when it comes to running their day-to-day affairs, one cannot simply do without the other.
Leaders of Bangladesh Police Service Association (BPSA), while protesting the oblique remarks of the DCs even raised apprehension that that the latter were out to dominate them. But such questions should not have arisen in the first place, as both of them are the servants of the republic. So, if there is at all any confusion about or controversy over the jurisdictions of each other's responsibilities, then the ideal manner of settling the question is to leave it to the discretion of the topmost authority of the government. Oddly though, the dirty linen is being washed in the public to the dismay of all concerned. The public may receive a wrong signal from such slanging matches. It may also undermine public confidence in the administration.
If anything, the row over the comments made at the DCs' conference has served to bring to the fore some of the sore points embedded in the legacy of their mutual relationship that deserve urgent attention of the government.
So, if the government does not want to see a dysfunctional civil administration, it should from its highest political level look into matter and redress it before it is too late.
On this score, one has also to accept that neither the constabulary, nor the magistracy as part of the civil administration is free from image crisis. And the police department are more susceptible to slip-ups as they have to deal directly with crime. So, it is important that the police come out with a better, cleaner image before the public.
It cannot at the same time be forgotten that the political leadership in the government, too, has a role to play in ensuring a better functioning of the civil administration. For it has been observed that politicians often interfere in the normal discharge of responsibilities by the administrative functionaries and sometimes made them work at cross-purposes to serve their personal ends.
To avoid further controversy, the government needs to act fast to delineate the jurisdictions of the DCs and the police chiefs and spell out in clear terms what it expects of them.
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