Karnataka - Bangalore   

State's move may improve policing in Bangalore Rural

A look at the composition of the Bangalore district reveals that each sub-division has area-specific problems, writes K.V. Subramanya

THE GOVERNMENT'S latest move to create a new district by splitting the vast Bangalore Rural district is likely to improve policing in these areas.

According to the plan, Ramanagara, the constituency of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, is tipped to be the headquarters of the new revenue district. Ramanagara, Channapatna, Magadi and Kanakapura taluks would be brought under the proposed district.

As policing suffered in the unwieldy Bangalore Rural district, a proposal was made to the Government, some 15 years ago, to bifurcate it and create a separate police district headed by a Superintendent of Police. Successive governments had deferred a decision on it.

In November 2003, the Home Department cleared the long pending proposal and the then Home Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Cabinet would take a decision soon.

However, the plan to create a police district now becomes redundant as the proposed revenue district will have a separate police force headed by a Superintendent of Police, an official explained. According to some senior officers who served in Bangalore Rural district and Central Range, the bifurcation is necessary as the existing district is not only too vast for a Superintendent of Police to supervise but also each of the taluks has peculiar law and order problems.

Of late, several major industries have come up in the district, causing new problems. Apart from the spin-off effects of industrialisation, the Bangalore Rural district police are also facing problems from a large number of resorts and clubs that have come up on the outskirts of the city. Many of these clubs have allegedly become centres for nefarious activities such as flesh trade and drug abuse. A look at the composition of the Bangalore district, which has five sub-divisions, reveals that each of them has area-specific problems.

Labour unrest, strikes and crime resulting out of industrialisation have been the major issues the police in the industrial belt of Hoskote, Kadugodi, Anekal and Attibele have been dealing with.

While Channapatna and Ramanagara are considered communally sensitive areas, Magadi, Nelamangala and Doddaballapur are often in the news for clashes between Dalits and upper caste people. Political murders, kidnappings and group clashes are common in Hoskote. Large-scale illicit liquor brewing and sandalwood smuggling that take place in Bylanarasapura, Medimallasandra, Shankinipura, Matamallasandra and Kattigehalli in Hoskote taluk have made this taluk the eyesore of Bangalore district. Nelamanagala, Doddaballapur and Anekal taluks are dacoity-prone and need special attention by the police, they say.

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