‘Exaggeration in communally sensitive tag for coast’

Declaring Coastal region as communally sensitive, would be an exaggeration, Mangaluru City Commissioner of Police T R Suresh stressed on Friday.

He was interacting with reporters during ‘Meet the press’ organised by Dakshina Kannada district Working Journalists’ Association and Mangaluru Press Club at Patrika Bhavan on Friday. Some incidents which were blown out of the proportion invited the tag of being ‘communally sensitive’, he said.

Law and order plays a vital role in the sustainable development of society. Issues pertaining to the violation of law and order, have daunted the image of the city. However, negativity is being spread through social media, boosting speculations and hatred.

Aiding the concept of ‘Brand Mangaluru’, the City Police Commissionerate has kept an eye on people posting hate content on social networking sites, he said.

He further said that Mangaluru City has less scope for road widening due to its topography. On an average, one lakh vehicles are added to the traffic density of the city each year. But, the infrastructure development is not happening at a similar rate, resulting in frequent traffic logjams.

A report has been recently submitted to the DC, recommending to impose restrictions on organisers to prevent traffic logjams during processions. It has also been advised to utilise the football ground for vehicle parking during large scale functions in Nehru Maidan. Urban local bodies and gram panchayats are also told to impose restrictions on programme organisers to ensure smooth traffic.

The City Police Commissioner clarified that action against illegal sand miners is hit by delay sometimes, as the related procedures to be carried out by the mining and geology department have slowed down due to staff shortage. Certain procedures are required to be carried out by the mining department before lodging FIR against the illegal sand transportation vehicles. The police department is catching hold of illegal sand transportation lorries almost everyday. But speedy action could not be initiated against the violators, as the department of mining is in a slow mode.

Efforts are on towards making police stations people-friendly. In the reshuffled beat system, the station level beat committees comprise citizen and the police staff who will be in constant touch to discuss issues in their respective areas. Currently, there are 720 beat committees in the city commissionerate, as compared to 70 committees earlier.

Currently, 36,000 members are part of the beat system. Every beat comprises of 50 members. A constable from each police station has been handed over the responsibility of a beat.

As per the directions by the central government, free medical aid, personal counselling and legal advice will be provided to women at police stations. The ‘one staff centre’ programme is implemented on pilot basis in Women’s police station in Pandeshwar, the commissioner said.

Prizes were distributed to the winners of an essay competition conducted for PU and degree college students on the topic ‘Nanna Jille: Nanna Kanasu’ (My district: My dream), organised by the journalists’ association as a part of ‘Brand Mangaluru’ programme.

DCP (Crime and Traffic) Uma Prashanth, DK District Working Journalists’ Association President Shrinivas Indaje, General Secretary Ibrahim Adkasthala and Press Club President Annu Mangaluru were present.