Single Commissionerate system on cards for Ambala and Panchkula

Section 8 of the Haryana Police Act provides for the commissionerate system. Under this system,after the publication of the notification,the state government will provide for a police officer not below the rank of Inspector General of Police to be the Commissioner for both Ambala and Panchkula.

There will be a Joint Commissioner with the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police and five Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCP) are likely. These are – DCP (Crime),DCP (Traffic),DCP (Panchkula),DCP (Ambala) and DCP (Rural) .

“It is different in regard to the Gurgaon and Faridabad commissionerate systems that here we would have a DCP for rural areas too. Looking at the success of other commissionerate systems and the faster growth of urbanisation,we would like to have a system beforehand,” explained a senior official with the Haryana Home Department.

Gurgaon was the first city in Haryana to get the commissionerate system of policing in 2007,followed by Faridabad in 2009.

The Haryana Police Act says that such a system may be put in a place for handling of “typical complex problems of crime,public order and internal security in urban or suburban areas,which call for quick and comprehensive response springing from purposeful direction,unitary chain of command,professional competence,functional specialisation,and legal authority coupled with accountability…”

The Act also provides that in any area for which a Commissioner is appointed and is empowered to exercise any power or perform any function under this Act,the District Magistrate shall not exercise the same power or perform the same function.

Under the commissionerate system,police get magisterial powers,including under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC,along with the power to issue licences under the Arms Act. The police can issue search warrants,take preventive measures and allow use of force.

They can also invoke Section 144 of the CrPC.