Unfortunate if Delhi govt gets control of police: B S Bassi

He also claimed that under the present arrangement, Delhi Police did not have to face any ‘local vested interests’.

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“If you tinker and place it (Delhi police) under the city government, local vested interests would come into play. I have worked in Goa and Pondicherry and on that basis, I can say local vested interests would definitely be created if it comes under the city government,” he added.

Earlier this week, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had met Bassi and demanded a list of 1,500 inspectors who, according to the CM, had not been made station house officers (SHO) till now. The CM had told mediapersons that he had also sought a list of those officers who had “been made SHOs repeatedly”, but Bassi refused to share it.

“We don’t know anything about the list. No one has asked me to give any list,” he said today.

He also termed Kejriwal’s usage of the derogatory term thulla while describing Delhi policemen as “unpalatable”.

The police force is trained to ignore anything that is not palatable to them, said Bassi, adding, “and that’s why it does not affect our morale. I would like to tell other officers to not think too much about it,” he said.

Claiming that he had nothing against the AAP government, Bassi urged it to focus on improving the city’s education system and infrastructure in the health sector. “The government has to work a lot to improve the infrastructure of government schools, of the health sector, where most clinics don’t even have doctors,” he said.

When queried about a referendum on the issue of full statehood to Delhi, an idea put forward by the AAP government, Bassi said such a move would be “unconstitutional”. “The Constitution does not permit a referendum and unless it is amended, a referendum is not permissible,” he said.