AT midnight on April 6, 2000, Guwahatis oil refinery presented a strange sight. Over 200 people, both young and old, formed a half-circle around the refinery and kept a nightlong vigil. Even more surprisingly, the police kept a discreet distance, the people just seemed to have taken over. And these vigilantes were ordinary people-bank clerks, small-time businessmen, government servants, even students, and members of the Noonmati Nagarik Committee (NC). What made them stand guard in the night was a common cause: the refinery, under threat from ULFA militants, had to be protected at all costs.
This action of the areas nagarik committee was no isolated instance. For, all across Guwahati city, citizens are increasingly becoming active participants in helping the police maintain law and order, prevent petty crimes and even in managing the increasing traffic on the citys choked roads. And, while these public guardians are enjoying the limelight, theyve also made quite an impact. For, ever since the Guwahati Police launched a scheme to form locality-based nagarik (citizens) committees in August 99, the citys crime rate has gone down. Says city SP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, "Once people started taking the responsibility to try and keep their locality crime-free, our job has eased a lot and its easier to detect or prevent crime." The facts bear him out:
But the citizens dont limit themselves to just crime detection and prevention. The 52 NCs also act as arbitrators in minor disputes within their areas. Says Additional SP, Guwahati city and nodal officer for the project, Debojit Hazarika, "The committees have acquired such legitimacy that people no longer come to us to settle minor disputes like land encroachment, petty scuffles etc. The NC office-bearers, who meet once a week, take care of these problems almost like the rural panchayats." They have also stepped in to manage the citys burgeoning traffic. Apart from the 300,000 vehicles already on the citys roads, about 2,000 new ones are registered every month. "And the total strength of the citys traffic police is just 300. Moreover, roads are as narrow as they were a decade ago," says Hazarika, whos also Additional SP in charge of traffic. So, the NCs help was enlisted here as well.
Its a simple, effective plan: the traffic police spells out the policies and the local committee implements it. For instance, once a no-parking zone is notified, its left to the people to enforce it. The committees also appoint volunteers to assist the traffic police on busy roads in the city. Its been about eight months since the scheme was launched, but as Mahanta, who took the cue from a similar programme in Singapore called Neighbourhood Watch Post, points out, the difference is already visible. "Earlier, the police was seen as something to be avoided. But now, not only has mutual coordination improved, theres also more understanding of the problems we face in maintaining order." Agrees Amal Medhi, councillor and president of the committee in his locality, "Weve realised that a crime-free society is as much our responsibility as that of the police."
This recognition that institutions are a public asset is precisely why Medhi and his NC colleagues are protecting the Guwahati refinery which falls under their locality. "On the eve of the Independence Day, Republic Day and the foundation day of the militant organisations, were extra alert and increase our vigil around the refinery," says Medhi. And this time the vigil started three days before April 7, ULFAs foundation day.
The people arent just supporting this new rapport but there actually are demands that the programme be extended to more areas. This alliance has also ensured that miscreants and militants who made Guwahati their hideout after a terrorist act in the rural areas cant take shelter in the city for too long. This happened after a door-to-door police survey to prepare a list of tenants in the city. "It ensured that any newcomer would be noticed immediately," Mahanta says.
Its an initiative thats worked well so far. But the challenge, as Mahanta knows well, lies in sustaining and fine-tuning it. Says an elderly citizen, "Im all for police-public cooperation. But it must be ensured that NC office-bearers dont become a law unto themselves." That, perhaps, might be a possible danger. But right now, Guwahati, a growing city of over 12 lakh people, is witnessing a new phenomenon wherein the police and the public arent adversaries but partners.
