The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Bridging the gap between police and public

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Tuesday, Sep 01, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Bridging the gap between police and public

Staff Reporter

Over 50 petitions were received during the meetings held in Coimbatore and Tirupur

Photo: M. Periasamy.

Moving closer: N. Kannan, Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore Rural District, receiving petitions from the public at a grievances meeting held on Monday. —

Coimbatore: Over 25 petitions were received by the Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore Rural District, N. Kannan during the first public grievance meeting held at the district police officer here on Monday.

This was held following Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s directive to the police department recently to hold such meetings at a regular interval to find solution to the public grievances.

Accordingly, the department has instructed the unit officers i.e., the Superintendents of Police to meet the petitioners on the first and third Mondays of every month.

On Monday, the Superintendent of Police had the Additional Superintendents of Police present with him, besides all the Deputy Superintendents of Police of all the sub-divisions in Coimbatore while the Station Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors were asked to remain at their respective police stations. Whenever, a petition was presented, the SP consulted the DSP concerned and instructions were given over the Very High Frequency wireless mike and phone to the jurisdiction officers to find out a solution to the long pending problem of the petitioner.

Mr. Kannan said that though he was meeting petitioners every day whenever in headquarters or whichever place he was visiting, the objective of having a standardised format of a grievance day on first and third Mondays was basically aimed at having the DSPs and jurisdiction officers at their respective headquarters to find instant solutions.

The petitions received were perused and after consultation with the DSP, instructions were written on the same and despatched to the Inspector so as to reach within an hour so that solutions could be found early. “Unlike other departments, grievances requiring police intervention could not put on hold or wait, hence such meetings would take the police closer to the public”, Mr. Kannan said.

Tirupur Staff Reporter adds:

At a grievance meeting held in Tirupur, Mr. Kannan said that a comprehensive database of foreigners and people from other states and districts working in various industrial units would be generated soon as part of crime prevention measures.

“The step will help us to effectively keep a tab on the floating population in the the town, which has witnessed some grave crimes in the recent times including attempted smuggling of narcotics through courier services committed primarily by outsiders”, he said. The SP, who is also the Foreigners Registration Officer, said that a separate register would be kept at all police stations in the district to list the foreigners living and visiting the region. “The record will help the police to easily monitor whether the foreigners have over stayed in the country (i.e., beyond visa period), as it has come to the notice that foreigners’ population in and around Tirupur cluster increased multifold over the last few years,” he said.

The industrial units, according to Mr. Kannan, should get the concurrence of police before deploying workforce from outside the district.

“Employers should submit photos and other identity documents of outside people to the nearest police station before issuing the appointment order to them,” he said.

The SP said that as many as 25 petitions were received during the grievances meeting.

He said instructions had been given to Deputy Superintendents of Police and Inspectors of Police that action would be taken against them if they failed to ensure that cases were not registered promptly.

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