The spate of crimes in Ranchi city has caused serious concerns to the citizens, particularly the trading community. People have opined that more emphasis was needed on prevention of crime adding an effective mechanism must be in place in this regard.
Notably, criminals virtually had a free run in Ranchi city on Wednesday evening when three petrol pumps were looted one after another. The criminals looted Rs 18,000 at gun point from Jagrani Petrol Pump under the Dhurwa police station area at around 2:30 PM, took away Rs 80,000 from Madhav Fuels at around 6 PM and then snatched cash totaling Rs 1,00,000 from Sakaldeep Petrol Pump near Hatia Swarnarekha bridge at around 6:10.
In addition the criminals also looted five lakhs from a travel and travel agency office under the Chutia PS area.
Raising concerns over the situation the president of Federation of Jharkhand Chambers of Commerce and Industries Deepak Maru said, “At present the decent citizens are living in fear while the criminals are fearless. It has been rare that three petrol pump were looted in succession in the state capital”.
He said soon after the murder of rice trader Narendra Singh Hora the FJCCI had a discussion with the CM, DIG and SSP on the law order situation.
“Our concern now is that merely solving the cases is not enough. We demand that a system must be in place for prevention of crime. It is the prime duty of the police though the traders could assist in various ways like installation of CCTV cameras in the city,” the FJCCI president said.
Maru said police presence must be strong in the business hubs including upper bazaar, Doaranda and the Lalpur areas. The intelligence wing of the administration should be activated adding after so many incidents the police should have the records of the criminals active in the city.
“The role of the police must be also multi-faceted. For instance, traffic police should not be involved merely in preventing traffic violation but also in checking the anti-social elements. For this they need proper training,” he said.