Six new police stations, 20 police posts to come up in first phase
THURSDAY, 13 October 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Uttarakhand government has decided to abolish the old practice of the revenue police in the State in a phased manner. This decision was endorsed by the State cabinet chaired by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday. Informing about the decision of the cabinet, the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Radha Raturi said that in the first phase, the villages which are adjacent to the existing police stations and police posts would be added to the jurisdiction of the police. She said that the six new police stations and 20 police posts would be set up in the areas where the tourism activities are going on. The ACS accepted that the cabinet had taken a principle decision to remove the existing areas under the revenue police and bring them into the jurisdiction of the regular police in a phased manner. In response to a question, she said that the State government had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court (SC) against the order of the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) on the revenue police system but it was not admitted. Raturi added that the state government would submit its reply on the issue in the HC in the wake of the decision taken by the cabinet on Wednesday.
The decision of the Uttarakhand government to slowly abolish the system of the revenue police is significant since 60 percent of the geographical area of the State falls under the revenue police. A total of the 7,500 villages of the State are under the revenue police system introduced in the year 1861. It is worth mentioning here that the Uttarakhand HC in 2018 had directed the State government to abolish the system of revenue police. The Uttarakhand government had filed an SLP in the SC against this order. The recent Ankita Bhandari murder case had again triggered the demand to abolish the revenue police as the role of the revenue sub-inspector in the case came under the cloud.
