Delhi cops to walk English, talk English

New Delhi: Ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games here, Delhi Police wants its 40,000 men and women in the rank of constables to sub-inspectors to have a good command over English, which the bulk of athletes and visitors will be speaking. And it will be an added bonus if they can learn a foreign tongue.

The Capital's police force is eager to start the Learn English programme at the earliest. Simultaneously, it is doing what it can to see if the attitude and conduct of its personnel also shows dramatic improvement.

"We want to start training them as soon as possible. The earlier we start, the more beneficial it would be," said Special Commissioner who heads the training wing in Delhi Police, S B Deol.

"Since the inflow of tourists before the games would increase substantially, we think it would be good if our personnel have better language skills," he said.

Deol said sub-inspectors would also be encouraged to learn at least one foreign language.

"We would ask them to learn a foreign language so that they are able to converse with people of different countries who would be visiting Delhi," he said.

The Delhi Police is nearly 60,000-strong, and most of its men, constables included, are graduates. But few in the lower ranks are comfortable speaking or writing in English, preferring Hindi instead.

And having learnt its lessons from the 1982 Asian Games, Delhi Police thinks it is time to remedy the situation.

There is a special wing that caters to tourists and its men are better off when it comes to English including members of Delhi Police's VIP Security Wing.

The Capital's police force is contacting private companies to help it on the language front.

"Our men and women will go through a three-day training course in different batches over the next three years. We want private trainers and institutions to carry out the programmes for us," Deol said.

Delhi Police, which caters to a city of over 15 million people, has forwarded a proposal to the home ministry to recruit more English-speaking personnel.

"What is needed is an attitudinal and behavioural change in the force. This cannot happen in just one day, so we want to start working towards it,” said Deol.