The setting up of a Special Operation Force to clamp down on criminals and anti-social elements has already been duly acknowledged as a welcome step in these columns. The detailed order issued to the media by the Director General of Police (DGP) Nagaland and the strategy chalked out to make it operational on the ground demonstrates the resolve to enforce law and order in the State. This visible action on the part of State government is appreciated. In fact the SOF guideline is comprehensive and appears to be have been worked out after thorough consultation and review. The State DGP needs to be congratulated for the effort put in towards streamlining, strengthening and working out an innovative security plan. Already, there has been a noticeable change in the way security has been stepped up and enforced especially in Dimapur. As rightly pointed out in the SOF guidelines, there is a need to conduct both foot/mobile patrol in cities and towns round the clock. A commercial hub like Dimapur which has a porous border with Assam and confronted with manifold law and order problems needs special attention on a sustainable basis. No leeway should be given to those who try to disturb the peaceful atmosphere. Hopefully with the State police stepping up its security vigil, people of the State will be able to enjoy peace in the coming Christmas and New Year season. As far as the SOF goes, now that it has been publicly notified and put into operation, it is expected that the same will be implemented in letter and spirit. Hopefully the SOF will become part of a more long-term permanent security infrastructure which Nagaland lacks at present. Such kind of steps to streamline security measures will also give confidence to the public to ‘trust and rely’ on the services provided by the police. At present this trust factor is missing.
Coming to the recent editorial ‘Commander-in-Chief’ published on the December 7, 2010 issue of the Morung Express, we express gratitude to the Police Headquarter, Kohima for sharing with us and our readers the information about the visit made by the Director General of Police (DGP) Nagaland along with ADG (Admn), IGP (INT) and other senior officers to the home of Late Dominic Zeliang and personally meeting the family of the deceased officer. The editorial it may be mentioned had termed as “unfortunate that neither the Home Minister nor the Director General Police found the time or the concern to be there at the funeral service”. However, it has now been clarified that the DGP did pay a visit to the late jawan’s home after the funeral was over. On our part we do hereby clarify that since during the funeral service, which was covered by the local newspapers, no condolence message from either the Home Minister or the DGP was read out and since both did not attend the funeral service, we had stated this in the Editorial based on the information available with us. However as later learned from the PHQ the truth was that “the DGP Nagaland did not sent his Condolence as he had planned to attend the service personally but failed to reach on time as he was held up due to prior engagement”. “However, immediately after the funeral service was over, the DGP Nagaland along with other senior officers personally met the family of the deceased Officer at their residence”. We appreciate this gesture and hope that the DGP will continue to meet, listen to the difficulties faced by our jawans and be a source of encouragement and support to the men and women in the police service.
