New Delhi, July 10 (IANS): Reforms in the country's various police departments cannot be effective until political interference in their work is stopped, security experts said here on Friday.

According to the experts, despite several efforts being made to modernise police force, political leaders continue to interfere even in police officers' recruitment process.

"The technology and all other advancement cannot be functional if the political class keeps interfering in the works of police. It is very sorrowful," said former Mumbai police commissioner J.F. Riberio while participating in the round table conference on Smart Policing - India's Growth Imperative organised by business chamber FICCI here.

He said most of the police officers joining the force were intelligent but lacked the interest to serve people and solve their problems.

"People joining police force nowadays are definitely intelligent but they lack the interest to serve people and deliver justice. There is a need to change their mindset," he said.

He said that a lot of people, despite becoming victim of various types of crimes, do not approach police just because many a times, police do not act strongly in spite of knowing everything.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, every year Rs.500-600 crore is distributed among the states for modernistation, which police officers say, is very less and doesn't even fulfills the fundamentals required for the upgradation.

Prakash Singh, chairman of Police Foundation and Institute, on this occasion said India was trying to build up a global image without paying heed to the internal rifts in the internal security.

"Today, the situation is such that Indian police forces are in a bad condition. India is trying to build up a global image but ignoring the internal rifts and problems, which cannot be successful," he said.

Prakash Singh, the ex-police chief of Uttar Pradesh and Assam, said there was a need of systematic reforms in the Indian police departments and those should be implemented without anybody's hindrance.

"There was also a need for the government to amend the constitution and make the required changes to improve the police forces of the country," he added.

Jaideep Govind, the additional secretary, Left Wing Extremism at Ministry of Home Affairs, said there were a lot of works being carried on including the upgradation of the police stations across the country.

"The government is trying hard to modernise the police control rooms and the police stations. We are also sensitising the police personnel in the police stations in remote areas so that people do not hesitate in approaching police. It is not that government is ignoring the problems," he said.

Govind said government was also going through the inputs from the state police departments on best practices in community policing, deployment of technology, modernisation of control rooms and transparency in police recruitment process.