BHUBANESWAR: Four years after it was set up, Police Complaint Authority (PCA), a watchdog supposed to look into complaints against senior police officers, has remained a non-starter. The State Government set up the State- level PCA on April 6, 2007, to look into complaints against police officers of the rank of additional superintendent of police and above pursuant to a Supreme Court directive on September 22, 2006. In a subsequent notification on May 1, 2008, the Government delegated the additional functions of PCA at the district and State level to the Lokpal. The Government created a post of registrar in the rank of Orissa Superior Judicial Service (retired district judge), one post of DSP, one post of personal assistant, two senior stenographer posts, two junior assistant posts and seven peon posts on contractual basis to assist the Lokpal as the head of the PCA. ‘’As the working system of the forum (PCA) is somewhat different from the departments of the State Government, two posts __ one section officer and a court master __ should essentially be created to be filled up by the Lokpal of his/her choice from persons having experience in judicial work,’’ the Lokpal suggested to the Government in his annual consolidated report for 2010-11 which was tabled in the Assembly recently. Congress Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan raised the issue in the Assembly on Friday while moving a motion for consideration of the Orissa Lokpal and Lokayuktas (Amendment) Bill, 2010. He criticised the Government for not providing adequate infrastructure and manpower support to the Lokpal who is functioning as the head of district and State-level PCA. As per the Supreme Court directive, the district-level PCA, headed by a retired district judge, should look into complaints against police officers up to the rank of DSP. The State-level PCA should be headed by a retired judge of the High Court or Supreme Court from a panel of names to be proposed by the Chief Justice of the High Court. The State-level PCA should look into complaints against senior police officers of the rank of SP and above, the apex court order said. The apex court had further ordered that district and State-level authorities should be assisted by three to five members depending on the volume of complaints.
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