Tag Archives: colony

Modern Scarecrows


(This poster declares in Hindi, “Beware! You are under scrutiny by a camera…)

While our national army basks in the glory of their recent ‘surgical strikes’ on the terrorist camps in Pakistan, a foreign country, our local Police allows petty criminals to go scot free. Crimes like pick-pocketing and snatching of handbags, jewellery, and electronic items such as mobile phones and laptops are considered far too trivial, not even worth the paper used to print their FIRs on! You need to be murdered or raped or both to be taken seriously by the police and still no action is taken against the criminals till the Media raises its voice.

On 9 October 2016, my black purse was snatched away by a woman in a Durga Puja Pandal. I informed the Police immediately. While I described the incident to their senior officer, the junior constables smiled gleefully and said, “Madam, you were well aware that you were in a public gathering where all kinds of people come. You should have been careful. The CCTV cameras we have got here are all fitted outside, not inside where the crime happened. So we can’t do anything about this.”

I received a copy of the FIR through email the next day. Two days later, I submitted to them my mobile phone’s IMEI number. But nothing happened after that, so I had no option left but to just dismiss it from my mind as a bad dream and move on.

To be fair to the Police, obtaining an FIR is now no longer a painful exercise that it used to be in the past. But their efficiency, I am sorry to say, appears to be on paper only. Everything else is as it was and continues to be, inefficient and corrupt.

Dear Prime Minister, Chief Minister, MLAs, Ministers, Delhi Government, and everyone else concerned, are you listening? What are those CCTV cameras meant for? To act as mere scarecrows?