ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY SHOULD NOT RISK PUBLIC SAFETY

In the administrative set-up of the national Capital, the Delhi Police has always enjoyed a dominant position given its pivotal role in implementing the 'permit-license raj'.

- SIDHARTH MISHRA Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice

Unlike the other states, the district police chief in the national Capital has always been a better-known public personality than the deputy commissioner of the district.

This has largely been on account of the power accrued to the force following the implementation of the commisonarate system of policing in the national Capital in 1978, with Chowdhary Charan Singh as the home minister of the country. This reform replaced the earlier system where the Inspector General of Police operated under the Divisional Commissioner.

The Commissioner of Police—always a senior IPS officer, earlier of the Inspector General rank and currently of Director General rank—reports directly to the Union Home Ministry and the L-G. Delhi was among the first few Indian cities to adopt the commisonarate system—a model later commended and replicated across major urban centres.

It did not just free the police from the superintendence of the civil administration but many responsibilities earlier of the civil administration were delegated to the police as law and order issues. Among these included many powers of licensing and permit which were till then under the purview of the civic bodies.