Newly appointed State director general of police (DGP) MA Ganapathy said on Thursday that he would strengthen community policing in the plain districts while in mountainous parts of the State, regular police would be re-jigged on the lines of the revenue police.
“State police is mulling to introduce community policing to check crimes, drug peddling, maintaining law and order, communal harmony,” the State’s top cop said.
Community policing brings police and citizens together to prevent crime and solve neighborhood problems. People are actively involved in community policing, he said, lauding it as an effective means to check crimes at the roots.
The constitution of the community policing would vary from region to region, depending on the character of the region and the crimes that they face. For instance, Dehradun being the hub of education where a large number of students from various parts of the country study, police would involve the students in community policing.
Statistics reveal that the cases related to consumption of drugs among students are high. Some of them commit crimes and such crimes committed by the drug addicts are on a spiral in the State capital.
Police would be in contact with the students to eradicate the menace from the roots. “Students studying in various schools, colleges and other institutions and living in hostels will be included in community policing in Dehradun district,” DGP said.
In Haridwar district, on the other hand, religious activities forming the hub of things there, those associated with religious activities would be involved in the community policing as per the plan envisaged by the DGP.
“Thousands of pilgrims from across the country visit Haridwar almost daily. People involved in religious activities would thus be included in community policing. In Udham Singh Nagar, several industrial units are located. This is why the employees working in these units would be included in community policing. likewise, traders will be included in community policing in Nainital district,” he said.
However, in a marked rupture from the pattern prevalent in the police during the time BS Sidhu was the DGP, the new DGP said that regular police would emulate the policing pattern being followed by revenue police in the mountainous parts of the State. This is a fairly significant decision, the observers say.
For the past few years, particularly when Sidhu was at the helm of the State police, the stress was on replacing revenue police with regular police in the mountainous parts of the State as far as possible.
“We are happy that things are now all set to reverse in favour of the revenue police, an institution conceived by the British Indian government that has been continuing since. The revenue police must be adequately strengthened and equipped with the modern gadgets to cope with the changing pattern of crimes now happening in their jurisdictional limits,” said an observer.