11 Delhi cops designated media coordinators but confusion prevails

Days after the launch of 11 new media centres - one for each police district of the national capital - for better dissemination of information, confusion still prevails with just five of the designated officers admitting to familiarity with their duties.

Three officers said they had been erroneously named, two said they were clueless about their new responsibilities while one refused to return calls.

Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi had announced the media centres Sep 19 during an informal interaction with journalists.

Thereafter, an official statement named the 11 police officers who would head the new centres and gave out their contact details. Though, the media centres were officially set up Sep 22, they are still facing glitches galore.

Of all the 11 officers IANS contacted, only five officers were in the know and were equipped with the information. One of them candidly admitted that it was the repeated calls of the media that helped

him in realising his new responsibilities.

When IANS contacted head constable Neeraj Sharma, whose name has been given as media coordinator for northeast district, he denied he was handling the new

responsibility.

"I am not the right person. My name and number might be given as default. I have not been told to give information to the media," Sharma responded.

Sharma provided the number of another officer, Satender, who also was unaware of his new responsibility.

South district's designated media coordinator Kamal also said he had no idea about the new setup.

"I can provide information after taking details from DCP sir, but I don't know why my name has been given as a media coordinator for the south district," Kamal told

IANS when he was contacted about an attack on a Supreme court advocate by two Nigerians.

Ajay Sharma, designated to head the west district media centre, refused to take calls.

When asked a senior Delhi Police officer, requesting anonymity, accepted that the media cells were not functioning properly.

This was despite the fact that the Delhi Police Commissioner announced them with much fanfare to improve relations with the media.

The cells were created to create a better relationship with the media by providing timely information on an incident on a given day.

"Some officers (of these cells) are aware of their role, but yes some are not. The set-up is in its initial stage and will take time to function properly," another officer told IANS.

Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said: "If the media has any query regarding information of any incident then they can call DCP of the concerned district or the official spokesperson."

If that is the case, why set up the media centres is the question that begs for an answer.

(Rajnish Singh can be contacted on rajnish.k@ians.in)