Regular Police will Now Handle Law and Order in 1800 Villages of Uttarakhand

• 03 Jan 2023

Why In News?

On January 2, 2023, Uttarakhand Additional Home Secretary Ridhim Agarwal said that law and order will now be maintained by regular police in 1800 revenue villages of the state. The state government has abolished the system of revenue police and notified these villages to be brought under regular police.

Key Points

• Additional Home Secretary Ridhim Agarwal said that there are about 7500 villages in the hilly areas of the state, where the responsibility of law and order is with the revenue police. But now the government is going to bring these villages under regular police by ending the years-old revenue policing system. Regular policing in these villages will reduce crime and anti-social activities.
• In the first phase, 52 police stations and 19 police outposts will be expanded under the law and order of regular police in the state.
• In the second phase , 6 new police stations and 20 police posts will be formed. Under this, the process of setting up new police stations and outposts and bringing about 1444 revenue villages under regular policing will be completed soon.
• He said that among the revenue villages notified by the government for regular policing, 4 in Dehradun district, 182 in Uttarkashi, 262 in Chamoli, 157 in Tehri, 148 in Pauri, 63 in Rudraprayag, 39 in Nainital, 231 in Almora, 595 in Pithoragarh, 106 in Bageshwar and 13 in Champawat. Villages are included.
• It is known that after the questions raised on the revenue police in the Ankita Bhandari murder case, the government has taken a big decision to bring it under the regular police.
• Actually, Uttarakhand has been divided into three regions. These three have different Acts, which empower revenue officials to make arrests and investigations. The first region is the mountainous belt of Kumaon and Garhwal division. The second is the hilly belt of Tehri and Uttarkashi districts and the third region is the Jaunsar-Bawar region of Dehradun district.