Mandated only with the task of managing traffic and assisting police during festivals and awareness campaigns, the civic volunteers are allegedly used to collect bribes, assist in arrests, and even control law and order situations.

Recruitment, their role

A year after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched the civic police and village police forces in 2012 to “assist police”. At present, there are about 1.17 Lakh civic volunteers in the state.

According to the state Home Department, the first criterion for recruiting a civic police volunteer is that the applicant should be a resident of the area where they will be deployed. The age band of the applicant is 20-30 years old and the minimum educational qualification is Class VIII pass. Generally, preference is given to the applicants who have done well in sports and have experience as NCC cadet/ Boy Scouts/ NSS guide/ Civil Defense Volunteers etc. or possess technical skills such as driving, technician, computer skills etc. They should not have any criminal records and be physically and mentally fit.

The salary of a civic police volunteer is Rs 10,000 per month with additional benefits of Rs 5 lakh medical insurance and Rs 6,000 Puja bonus. On retirement, they are entitled to get Rs 5 lakh one-time benefit.

“On paper, there is a provision for the background check of the applicants before they are recruited. But since the civic volunteers are locals, word of mouth is also generally accepted,” said a senior police officer.

“After recruitment, they get a training of 10 days. After that, they are supposed to get regular refresher training. This, however, rarely takes place,” added the officer.

In March, 2023, the Calcutta High Court ordered West Bengal Police that civic volunteers cannot be engaged in any law-and-order duties. Following the High Court’s order, the government issued a guideline for civic volunteers. According to the state Home Department, civic volunteers should only assist police in traffic management, major festivals, dealing with unauthorized parking vehicles and ensuring public safety. They cannot be engaged in any investigative work or law and order-related subjects of the police force.

Stop-gap arrangement

Sources in the police administration said that despite the guidelines, civic volunteers play a crucial and more elaborate role covering most aspects of policing since there is a dearth of constables.

The West Bengal Police is understaffed with less than 100 police staff for 1 lakh population. Bihar and West Bengal have the lowest ratio of police personnel to per lakh population in the country at 75.16 and 97.66, respectively, according to a reply by Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in Lok Sabha last year.

The sanctioned strength of West Bengal police-population ratio is 160.76 per lakh population.

In contrast, as on January 1, 2022, the number of police personnel per lakh persons in the country is 196.23 as per sanctioned strength and 152.80 as per actual strength.

“The system of civic police is a stop-gap system. How can it make up for the loss in policemen retiring or the need to fill in vacancies? There is no proper recruitment system or fair drill for the civic police. They are mostly recruited from recommendations of ruling party leaders. The Calcutta High Court and later the Election Commission barred them from law-and-order duties and election duties. Their role in policing or assisting the police is already being questioned,” said former Inspector General (Intelligence Branch) Pankaj Dutta.

“There is also no legal obligation on the part of the civic volunteers in case they make a mistake. A constable on the other hand faces stringent scrutiny and punishment for any mistake,” added Dutta.

Echoing him, an officer in charge of a police station in North Kolkata said: “In every police station, there is a dearth of constables. We need to have constables put in armoury, sentry duties, lock-up duties where no one else can be assigned. This further reduces the numbers we need. If there are multiple law and order situations in an area, we are forced to send civic volunteers. We are helpless. But if anything the civic volunteer does, we are blamed.”

Former Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh said: “I am not in favor of such a force. Anyone, who is in the police force or assisting the police, all must be properly trained. Discipline has to be there. Instead of such a force, the existing vacancies of the police force, the strength, manpower should be increased. Police force should always be a specialized force, who are trained in their job — from law and order to investigations to traffic management.”