The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Suburbs rejoice over Police Commissionerate Law and order

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Saturday, May 31, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Suburbs rejoice over Police Commissionerate Law and order

Some of the pressing problems facing the southern suburbs are manpower shortage and infrastructure crunch, writes K.Manikandan

A couple of years after being amalgamated with Chennai City Police, St. Thomas Mount, Ambattur and Madhavaram will soon be brought under a new Commissionerate.

It would have a new Commissioner, exclusive wings dedicated to monitor traffic and an intelligence wing, among others. “It is good [move] and bound to happen sooner or later. The suburbs of Chennai can rightfully claim to be a city outside Chenn ai,” said U. Sethupathy, a resident of Perungalathur for over two decades now. In the early years, the suburbs stretching from Minjur to Perungalathur came under Chengai East Police District, manned by a Superintendent of Police and a couple of Deputy Superintendents. There was a visible difference in the crime rate in the past few years that forced the State government in 2005 to carve out three new police districts — St. Thomas Mount, Ambattur and Madhavaram and bring them under the umbrella of Chennai City Police.

The new “extended city” under the control of the Commissioner of Police, St. Thomas Mount, would have close to 50 lakh people living in the jurisdiction of nearly 40 police stations in the three police districts formed in 2005. It is still not clear if the new Commissionerate would have exclusive and dedicated wings to monitor crime cases on the lines of Central Crime Branch in Egmore. But top police sources said it would no longer be necessary to visit the City Police Commissioner’s office in Egmore for any grievance.

Some of the pressing problems facing the suburbs, at least in south, are severe manpower and infrastructure crunch. With many inspectors not being provided with vehicles, mobility has become an important problem. And the acute scarcity of own land has forced many police stations and other wings of the Department to occupy crammed, rented property.

But more importantly, just as the Chennai City Police have a modern and dedicated control room, the suburbs too should have one, said Mr.Sethupathy. And on the lines of the Chennai City Traffic Police, the suburbs too should be equipped with similar facilities that would result in creation of new traffic signals and digital policing (in the form of video cameras).

Residents said the suburbs were always being given step-motherly treatment. Crime, law and order and traffic accidents cases in the city seemed to be given more importance than in the suburbs they said, pointing to a few long pending cases, including the murder of an elderly women for gain in Madipakkam last year.

Many felt that the creation of a new Commissionerate for the suburbs is bound to have some benefits both in terms of administrative convenience and service delivery to litigants and general public. Inspector General of Police, S. R. Jangid, who would soon be at the helm of affairs of the newly created Commissionerate, has already had a stint as Deputy Inspector General of Police (Chengai Range) in the past and is aware of challenges and problems in the suburbs that are so distinctly different from the city.

And unlike the city, community policing is common in many suburban pockets — a pointer to the involvement of citizens in crime prevention.

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