Overburdened DCPs struggling to step up preventive actions

Time of India

04-05-2025

Nagpur: The crime-prone city's zonal deputy commissioner of police ranking officers seem to be finding it difficult to keep pace with their supervisory work and also meet the challenges of undertaking preventive actions to tackle the crime rate. Previously, with officers of the ACP rank, the introduction of the
Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita
(BNSS) has now empowered the
DCPs
to undertake preventive actions, increasing their load manifold.
Sources stated the DCP ranking officers, generally having five to seven police stations under them, were trying to keep pace with their workload in the capacity of supervisory-level officers saddled with various responsibilities. These range from police station visits, reviewing investigation progress, redressing public grievances, tackling law and order, and leading the nakabandis and patrolling, with the city suddenly witnessing a spurt in the crime rate, especially murder cases, which is touching 35. Managing the routine work, DCP ranking officers are learning to face an uphill task with the preventive actions.
By mid-April 2025, there was a noticeable increase in the actions under section 126 of BNSS (erstwhile Criminal Procedure Code 107), invoked mostly against first-timers in crime, compared to statistics from the first four months of the previous year. While there were 3,163 actions under BNSS 126 this year in the first four-and-a-half months, there were 2,770 last year. In BNSS 126, Zone IV's statistics were highest with 822 cases, followed by Zone V with 813.
After the encouraging statistics of BNSS 126, there was a gloomy fall in the statistics under the more serious BNSS 129 (CrPC 110), which are invoked mostly against hardened criminals to keep them under bond for up to two years. This year, there were around 635 cases under BNSS 129 till mid-April. It was 875 last year in the same period. Zone IV invoked BNSS 129 against the highest number, 178, followed by Zone V with 158.
"Shifting the responsibilities of undertaking bonds under the preventive provisions from the ACPs to the DCPs in cities has only added to the working schedule of the supervisory officers. If stress is placed upon the preventive actions, then the rest of the compulsory schedule gets affected. The DCPs have to stretch themselves from the office to the field duties and shuttle between various duties," said an official on the condition of anonymity.