Mumbai, July 22: Political leaders should create a conducive socio-political environment for the police to carry out their duties efficiently, Maharashtra Minister of State for Home, Kripashankar Singh said today. "Frequent political interference’s have demoralised the police force to a large extent, as they also have to protect the several politicians who have criminal record", Singh said inaugurating the week-long 29th "vertical interaction course for IPS officers" at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) here.

He said with the continuing criminalisation of politics in the country, police officials were under great mental stress adding the police officials should be provided with "modern gadgets and more facilities to tackle crimes and allowed to take appropriate action freely". Singh said he was against transfers of police officials for "political reasons" as "this has affected the morale of several officials".

TISS director R R Singh said the change in the nature of crimes, including rise in cyber crimes, has led to the increase in stress level of police personnel and added that multi-pronged steps should be taken to tackle them effectively. Bureau Report