Kerala - Kochi   

Acute shortage of personnel in city police

KOCHI: The city police facing acute shortage of hands are not to get a respite soon, according to indications. A proposal by Inspector-General of Police (Training) Alexander Jacob to make up for the shortage of hands is pending with the police headquarters.

The proposal, filed in 2006, suggested shifting the headquarters of a battalion of the Kerala Armed Police-I from its current base in Thrissur to Ernakulam. The proposal cited that out of the eight battalions in the State, five were in the Thrissur range till 2003.

Statistics point out that Ernakulam tops the list of number of cognizable crime recorded under the Special and Local Law (SLL). In 2006, the number of cases recorded under the SLL in the city was 10,557, Thrissur and Kollam followed with 5,922 and 5,608 cases. In Ernakulam Rural, the number was 3,927.

In 2006, a total of 17,297 first information reports were recorded in 22 police stations inside the city limits. During the same period, 5,699 cases were reported under the IPC from within the city and 8,542 cases from Ernakulam Rural.

While the proposal is gathering dust at the higher offices, the city police have been following it up with repeated requests for augmenting the number of personnel.

“Shifting of battalion headquarters might not be directly beneficial for the city police. We have been requesting for augmenting the strength of personnel for traffic and law and order,” said Vinson M. Paul, Inspector-General of Police, Ernakulam Range.

One of the main hurdles in shifting the battalion headquarters is lack of enough space. The present base of the Armed Reserve camp at Thripunithura will not be enough for handling the emerging situation.

The shifting of battalion headquarters has strategic importance as well.

The proposal points out that under the present situation one will have to travel nearly 300 km to find a battalion.

By shifting the battalion to Ernakulam, law and order-prone and communally-sensitive areas in Alappuzha, Vaikom circle in Kottayam and Mattanchery in Ernakulam can be easily attended to.

Also, shifting of the battalion will vacate the Ramavarmapuram camp.

The building and land can thus be handed over to Kerala Police Academy, providing the capacity to train 2,300 personnel at a time.

Thus, the academy will have the capacity to meet all the training requirements of the police along with that of Excise, Forests and Motor Vehicles Department, the report pointed out.

Shifting can be done by vacating the Ernakulam City Armed Reserve Camp from Thripunithura.

The personnel of the battalion can take over guard and traffic duties.

This will ensure implementation of eight-hour work for personnel in the city and the Armed Reserve camp.

The report said the personnel also stood to gain from this shift as 95 per cent of the KAP-I personnel belonged to Ernakulam district.

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