Kerala - Kochi   

A much-awaited facelift

The City Traffic Police have forwarded a proposal for starting four new traffic stations and strengthening of the force, reports Anand Haridas.

The Home Minister's announcements at the recently concluded State conference of the Kerala Police Association has instilled a new breath of enthusiasm among the City Police personnel. Many see it as facelift that was long pending.

One significant announcement was enhancing the strength of traffic police personnel. "Strengthening the traffic wing in three main cities and control room operations in all places is being given top priority," said K. Padmakumar, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ernakulam Range.

The City Traffic Police expect to benefit from the new changes. It has already forwarded a proposal for starting four new traffic stations and strengthening of the existing force. Even though there are four traffic police stations — City Traffic, Edappally, Mattanchery and Thripunithura — cases are charged only at the City Traffic station (Traffic -West).

"Converting these centres to full-fledged stations and increasing the strength will not require any additional financial commitment from the Government. The strength will be increased by redeployment of the existing manpower," said Mr. Padmakumar.

Redeploying of hands will not be restricted to the traffic alone, it seems. Studies are expected to be done on the actual requirement of policemen at individual police station levels and thus the available manpower can be effectively utilised.

That also brings up the issue of manpower being wasted for projects that have failed to take-off — like the Kerala Marines. Kochi had the first base station of Kerala Marines, which was inaugurated by the then Director General of Police P.K. Hormis Tharakan a couple of years back. The situation has not changed much since then. In fact, the condition of the members of the force worsened.

The building at the Fort Kochi base came down during this monsoon and the force had to shift to the old police station at Fort Kochi. With two boats, one under repair, and a water scooter, the Kerala Marines will have nothing much to do this trawling ban season.

"The accent will be on improving the condition of the constabulary. So pending promotions will be cleared on a war-footing," he said.

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A much-awaited facelift

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