The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Separate police station for airport mooted Law & order

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Separate police station for airport mooted Law & order

The proposal of a police station is to have law enforcers with a role devoid of routine duties, writes R. Rajaram

With domestic and international flight services through Tiruchi Airport on the rise over the years, the city police has proposed a separate police station exclusively for the airport with specific tasks concerning security besides investigation of passport cases.

The proposal to establish a separate police station for Tiruchi Airport on the lines of the one in existence at Chennai Airport is to have a team of law enforcers with a focussed role and responsibility devoid of the routine assignments performed by their counterparts attached to regular police stations.

In the proposal forwarded to the state police headquarters recently, the city police authorities have also sought an anti-sabotage team specialised in Bomb Detection and Disposal to be part of the separate Airport Police Station to act in times of emergency.

The need for a separate police station exclusively for the airport was felt as the existing Airport Police Station had to perform multi-various duties including maintenance of law and order in its jurisdiction, providing outer security for the airport, investigation of crime, law and order and passport cases, handling court cases, execution of non-bailable warrants besides organising peak and non-peak hour vehicle checks putting a lot of burden on them. Once a new airport police station was established, the existing one would be re-christened and divested of airport duties.

The personnel attached to the proposed separate station for the airport would have their task cut out, once sanctioned by the State government, namely maintenance of outer security of the airport premises, VIP security, investigation of passport cases, crowd regulation and management, says a senior police officer.

The Central Industrial Security Force is vested with responsibility of maintaining the airport’s inner security and the checking of the air travellers.

Increase in domestic and international flight services to and from Tiruchi over the years and frequent movement of VIPs passing through this airport and the proposed expansion have all been taken into consideration while seeking the creation of a separate police station for the airport, say authorities.

Sources say on a day nearly 10 flights (domestic and international) arrive and depart from Tiruchi Airport with the number of passengers crossing the 1,000 mark every day.

A separate police station with a focussed role would enable the law enforcers attached to it to handle matters relating to security and investigation of passport cases more effectively, say the authorities.

In the last six months alone nearly 40 passport cases had been registered at the Airport Police Station which were all “under investigation.”

Since passport cases have inter-district and inter-state ramifications as well, personnel attached to the separate police station for airport would be in a much better position to concentrate and investigate such crimes, say the authorities. The official said some of the pending passport cases would be transferred to the Crime Branch CID wing of the State Police.

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