Empower citizen to file complaint from home: President Ram Nath Kovind to cops

New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday asked police officers to encourage and create an "ideal" system where citizens were able to file their complaints without having to go to a police station.

He was addressing the 69th batch trainee officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) who met him at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

He also spoke about technology and described it both as a challenge and a helping tool for the police.

"While it expands avenues for crimes, technology also allows the police to do its duties with greater efficiency. It allows the citizen to interact with the police force?-and even to lodge a complaint?-from the comfort of his or her home and computer or mobile phone," he said.

The president urged the officer trainees to "encourage" this process.

He added that the "ideal police system" was one where the citizen got due service from the police without needing to visit the police station.

Kovind said the IPS was one of the pillars of the national administrative system.

As members of an all-India service, he said, they would serve in individual states but represent a national idea.

Their mandate was to uphold a common concept of the rule of law and the democratic polity and in that sense, they were guardians of not just the public order and honest conduct but of the majesty of the law, he said.

The president called upon the officers to discharge their duties without fear or favour, and without time delay.

As professional civil servants, the president said, they should be unafraid to give the political executive honest and unbiased advice.

He said their holy book and constant guide must be the Constitution.

The officers who met the president today were training at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) in Hyderabad.