Commissioner of Police Umesh Sharraf

VIJAYAWADA: Police stations under the limits of the city police commissionerate will obtain ISO 9001-2000 certification by the end of this year. A team of experts from the ISO has already visited all the 18 police stations. The agency will issue the certificates once it accepted a payment of Rs. 54 lakhs from the department towards certification charges.

Plans are afoot to make the payment through the office of the Director-General of Police during this year, according to Commissioner of Police Umesh Sharraf.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Sharraf said that computers would be installed at the reception counters of all police stations with proper database and networking.

Fall in crime rate

Observing that there was a fall in the crime rate and an increase in the conviction rate in 2005, he said that as many as 5,483 cases under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were reported during 2005, as compared to 6,595 cases in the previous year.

The percentage of detection went up from 27 per cent in 2004 to 45 per cent in 2005. The police opened 670 suspect sheets and collected photographs and fingerprints of 2,036 accused persons in the year. They also nabbed gangs involved in economic offences like faking with forged bank documents. As many as 32 cases were booked under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Money Lending Act.

Mr. Sharraf said that the number of cases under investigation was brought down from 4,273 to 3,275 and the percentage of conviction went up from 30 per cent to 58 per cent. The police collected user charges to the tune of Rs. 21.5 lakhs through the Unified Police Services Centre (UPSC). The UPSC was providing information to people under the Right to Information Act, besides providing 16 different services like issue of permissions for meetings.

Referring to the reorganisation of administrative set-up, Mr. Sharraf said that manpower was redistributed as per the workload. He said that the commissionerate needed six sub-inspectors and an equal number of armed reserve police constables.

He sought public cooperation to regulate traffic, as the traffic wing did not have sufficient staff. The wing had a total strength of 180 while the number of traffic islands in the city was 200, he said.

Replying to a question, Mr. Sharraf said that Maoists' movements were observed in the city, as it had road and train connectivity to northern and southern States. "It doesn't mean that the city became a shelter zone for Maoists," he said.

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