India’s first central police

university to come up in Greater

Noida
TNN | Sep 16, 2019, 09.16 AM IST

GREATER NOIDA: The country’s first central police university will be set
up by the Union home ministry off the Yamuna Expressway in Greater
Noida. A ministry brochure said the Centre had given in-principle approval
for the university and a 100-acre plot has been identified in Sector
Techzone for it.

The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) confirmed

that the land had been allotted to the Centre at a cost of Rs 372 crore. “The
allotment letter for the national police university was issued on September
13 after all formalities were completed. We have already received about Rs
37 crore, 10% of the payment for the land, and another 20% is expected
within a week. Once we get 30% of the cost of land, we will hand over its
possession,” said Narendra Bhooshan, CEO of GNIDA.
The official said GNIDA would provide all necessary support for the
university.

“It is a matter of pride that a national police university is being set up in our
city. It is a much-needed infrastructure that will help improve the law and
order situation of the country and intensify the training for cops,” Bhooshan
added.

According to sources, the proposed university is being billed as one of the

top 100 achievements of the ministry in the 100 days of the second term of
the Modi government. The land earmarked for the university had earlier
been allotted to an IT company. However, the IT firm surrendered it last
year, after which it was allotted for the university.

The university will offer undergraduate and post-graduate courses on

policing, internal security, cybercrime and forensic sciences. Sources said
colleges from various states could be affiliated to this university. The
country does not have a central university for police yet, though states like
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Jharkhand have dedicated police varsities.

Retired police officers welcomed the move, saying a central university

would be beneficial for all ranks in the force, especially in the field of
research and development. “Policing is an evolving social science. Social
ethos determines the propensity of crime and currently, there is no
emphasis on developing such society-oriented investigation and data
collection. A central police university will help increase focus on developing
skills and knowledge base related to behavioural sciences,” said Sulkhan
Singh, former DGP of Uttar Pradesh and former DG (training).

Singh also pointed out that most police training institutes in the country do
not have a mandatory psychologist and social scientist for the trainees.
Another retired DGP of Uttar Pradesh, AL Banerjee, said the focus of
training needs to shift towards academic research and growth. “For a
specialised profession like this, training for policemen is very short in our
country. For constables, it is just six months, while it should be at least a
year-long with theory as well as field experience. Additionally, with the kind
of work, there is no re-training of officers. A national university is a great
idea that can standardise the training process for cops as well as train
civilians,” Banerjee said.

According to Vikram Singh, another retired DGP of the state, policemen are
“irrelevant” if they are not trained every five years.
“The two-year training for IPS at the National Police Academy is not
sufficient. Today, a cop has to be a one-person army, face-reader, crowd-
manager, IT-trained, and with sufficient maturity to understand psychology.
They should also understand robotics, drone technology and the ever-
evolving forensic and ballistic sciences. Officers must be get specialisation
in these by way of PhD and post-doctoral courses,” Singh said. Noida
police chief Vaibhav Krishna also supported the need for such a varsity.
“Policing is specialised job, but there is no such training based on research
and case studies. It is necessary to have a better knowledge of the field
that is based on specific cases, as is done in western countries.”