BJP demands retirement age of police reduced to 55 years

PANJIM, JULY 29
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday demanded that the retirement age of police should be reduced to 55 from existing 60 years.
Party’s legislator and spokesman of legislature wing, Damodar Naik said that the retirement should be brought down to 55 years and all retired policemen should be granted benefits of five years.
The first report of ‘the demands related ad hoc committee on Home’ mentioned that the budget estimates for 2010-11, Rs 18.400-lakh and Rs 425.000 lakh, have been allotted for non-plan and demands respectively.  
Speaking about much spoken drug nexus case, Naik rued that while few cases were unnecessarily handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the state government was reluctant to let CBI investigate police-drug mafia nexus despite High Court strictures.
Naik said people have lost faith in the police. “The department has gone defunct,” he lamented.
Fatorda MLA said that the rise in drug cases registered by police indicates that there is rise in drug related activities in the state.
Pointing out to the reply tabled on the floor of the house, he said that 23 drug cases were booked in 2007, 24 in 2008 and 35 in 2009.
The MLA said that the Home Ministry should respond to the grave issues of missing drugs from malkhana, acquittal of terrorist Batloo and hiding of naxalite Sambu Beck and selective drive against vehicles with tinted glasses, which shows that the department has failed miserably.
The conviction rate of all cognizable cases in 2009 is 56.41% as against 51.20% in 2008, which shows an improvement, the Government replied in the ad-hoc committee report. However, it said, there was slight decrease in conviction rate by 11.34% during the year 2008 as compared to year 2007.