Yan Murry interviews Amongla Aier who is the first Lady IPS officer from Nagaland.

Amongla joined service in the year 2006 (Madhya Pradesh cadre). She is currently posted as City Supridentent of Police, Indore. Earlier this year, Amongla had commanded the official Independence Day parade of Madhya Pradesh.

Firstly, congratulations on being appointed as an I.P.S officer. You are the first Naga lady I.P.S officer. How does it feel to be inducted into the prestigious service?
Amongla: Thank you. I feel it is a great honour and responsibility to be a fraternity of Indian police service and also for being the first IPS woman from Nagaland and I thank God for all the blessings so far.

Women usually do not opt for the Indian Police Service. Was it your dream to be a police officer?
Amongla: Honestly, I never wanted to be in the IPS and I never even thought that I would be in this police service. I was kind of shocked and dismayed when I got IPS initially. But now I feel maybe I was destined to be where I am and maybe there is a greater plan of God for me to be in this service than to be in other service.

Tell us about your education and family background.
Amongla: I have done most of my studies from Nagaland. I graduated from patkai Christian college in economics. Then I went to do my PG in sociology from Delhi School of Economics-DU. My father is also an IPS in Nagaland so its like following in my fathers footsteps. My mom is a home maker and we are five siblings of which I am the eldest.

Cracking the Civil Service Exam is no joke. How much time did you devote while preparing for the exam?
Amongla: Well, I did put in a lot of hard work and time while preparing for the exam but most of all it was the prayer support and lot of good wishes from family and friends.that I am where I am now and perhaps it was destiny.

For the benefit of Civil Service aspirants reading this interview, please give a few tips on how to crack the UPSC exam.
Amongla:
1. Conviction from within, remember it’s a service not just a job that you are going to enter into.
2. Extensive study for prelims and intensive and selective study for mains. Be up to date with current affairs, read a lot- remember knowledge is power.
3. Interview is equally important- knowledge, language skills, confidence and personality are very important. It’s good if you can lead the board along to your plus areas.
4. It’s good to have a critical point of view, rather an analytical one where u can not only criticize but offer solutions at the same time.
5. Patience is very important here. Because one is not always lucky to clear the exam at one go, it is frustrating and tolling so I would practically advise to have something to fall back upon after your attempts are over- else its very difficult to start all over again after wasting so many years.
6. There is no substitute for hard work, remember once you have done your part God well do the rest.
7. Believe in yourself – think if others have done it why can’t I?

This year, you had commanded the official Independence Day Parade of Madhya Pradesh. That shows you are an able officer. Please describe the experience. What made your seniors choose you to lead the parade?
Amongla: Its was a privilege to be commanding an independence day parade. Initially I was a little apprehensive because I had to command in Hindi and my pronunciation was not too strong but I worked on it and everything went out smoothly. And yes, commanding the parade did help in boosting my confidence and I am proud I got the opportunity.
We are 4 officers in our batch and all of us have our turn to lead a parade. My seniors wanted a lady officer to lead the parade and so I was there.

How is a typical day like for you as a police officer? Any hobbies you indulge in during your free time?
Amongla: Police is a 24*7 work. There is no holiday, no weekly off. Here in Indore, all officers and men are putting in at least 15 hrs of work. I reach home at the earliest at 12.00pm every day. There is no date or time line. Right now there is just no room to indulge in hobbies.

These days, youths have ample options in the private sector with attractive salaries. Do you still feel the Civil Services attract youths like before and why?
Amongla: there is no dearth for aspirants in CS. Everyone have different opinions on the salary matter, for many money is everything, while for some it is not. The trend as of now is that most of the new entrants have work experience prior to entering the civil service and most of them are professionals like doctors ,engineers, management graduate etc. so it shows that despite the salary package being offered by Govt there are many takers to the service. Civil service gives you not only recognition and status but gives you a larger playing field if you really want to make a difference. It gives you immense job satisfaction for your action and decision, which impacts a lot of people which you don’t get in the private sector.

With terrorist threats looming everywhere in India these days, has the job of police officers become difficult? What steps has been taken by your department to prevent/counter terrorist attacks?
Amongla: Yes, times have changed, the role of police has not only become difficult but challenging .With increasing threat to internal security from terrorist activities, communalism, regionalism, naxalism etc, the need for effective leadership from police is called for.
We as a department is the most neglected, most criticized from all quarters of society because we are the most visible organ of Govt yet the society cannot do without us.
We need to be more proactive and become tactically offensive, our intelligence network should be strengthened, there should be more intra- inter state coordination and also with other agencies.
The constabulary and police station level should be trained well, we need good equipments and facilities, most of all we need motivated leadership.
Till now there is no concrete blueprint or plan to counter terrorism both at the national and state level. We follow a wait and watch policy. Our networking and intelligence inputs need to be improved.

How has the internet shaped the world today? What are your views on Cyber crime? Is the Indian police force well equipped to tackle cyber crimes?
Amongla: Internet and the information technology have brought profound revolutionary changes in the world today like never before. It has brought people together through access to information at the press of a few key strokes. The world is in your palm now.
Material changes have happened so fast that we are now at a loss with our own belief system and values. With any change there is bound to happen both the good and bad, rule of nature.
Cyber crimes is one which is fast spreading a result of this IT revolution, no amount of traditional policing can stop this we need a paradigm shift in our approach with such crime. The criminals are technologically few steps ahead of us. We have just begun writing our FIRS in computer!! We need trained and committed people. At present we are in a very sorry state as far as cyber crime is concerned. Delhi and Mumbai police are comparatively doing better then the rest of the states. We need a lot of trained technical professionals which we don’t have now. Government should start investing in training and equipments in cyber related crimes and offences. Till then we are searching for the needle in the hay stack.

If you were not a police officer what would you rather be?
Amongla: I really don’t know still. I want to do so many things before I die… maybe a fulltime wanderer!!!