Over-enthusiastic ‘Anti-Romeo’ police goes on overdrive, even girls admit

Lucknow: The ‘Anti-Romeo Squad’ operations in the state looks like misfired at the outset with a slew of complaints pouring in about the misplaced action by the police force.

Instead of focussing on the prevention of eve-teasing and harassment of the girls, the police across the state has gone overboard in the absence of any clarity on the issue from the higher ups of the police administration.

The one incident in the state capital is enough to describe the over reach of the police when a boy was stopped while he was moving along with his sister. Several cases of harassment of young boys by the police have been reported from various parts of the state.

The Director General of Police Javeed Ahmad, in his video conferencing with the police officials, had given directions in this regard but, even before the Anti-Romeo Squads were formed, the police was into harassing the youths more than providing a fearless atmosphere for the girls, specially the school girls.

In another example of an overawed Senior Superintedent of Police (SSP) of Ghaziabad, the action was taken against as many as twenty policemen.

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Twenty-year-old Malvika, a student of Lukcnow university, told newstrack.com that the girl lot was not interested in action against boys but they only wanted hassel-free to and fro travel between home and university or school or college. Moreover, not all fun-loving boys were into eve-teasing and some discretion was expected from the police, said another college going girl Esha whose brother was put to unnecessarily grill when he had gone to girls college to pick her up.

A District Magistrate of a district adjacent to Lucknow, said on the condition of anonymity said that the district police all over the state looks in a hurry and forgetting basic norms of policing. The Thursday’s surprise visit of the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to Hazratganj Kotwali in the state capital has further sent a wave of jitter among the police staff.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of UP DGP office admitted that it was a transition period for police also as the new government was sworn-in. With regards to ‘ Anti-Romeo Squad’, he said the same were being set up in the districts and a circular in this regard had been issued by the DGP.

The ‘Anti-Romeo’ squad should have proper mix of punitive and preventive actions rather than indulging in ‘moral policing’, already a no-no in the society. The initiative, however, is a welcome move in Uttar Pradesh where girl safety has always been an issue during Samajwadi Party regime but the controlled action was also required from the police force while dealing with this.

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