The Kovalam heist, several burglaries, and ganja cases in and around the capital, and then the brutal triple murder at Parampuzha in Kottayam, all of which had persons from other States as prime accused and working on daily wages here, have prompted the City police to speed up efforts to create a database of migrant labourers here.
The mammoth task, considering there are 12,000 to 15,000 migrant labourers working at construction sites, hotels, and several other establishments under the 20-odd police stations in the city, is expected to be completed in another 20 days, City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh told The Hindu.
This would be a beginning to a never-ending process, he said, pointing out that the migrant labour population was a floating one, with the labourers moving in and out of the city in search of workplaces. The database, which as of Wednesday, has details of over 2,000 persons from around 12 police stations in the city, will be updated every 10 days, with the City Crime Squad (previously known as the City Shadow Police) and the Special Branch to do it in every police station limit.
“It has to be updated without fail, otherwise the entire exercise will be of no use,” Mr. Venkatesh said.
The database, which is being compiled through visits to worksites and from contractors who supply labour to different clients, has the labourer’s name, address (both local and native), photograph, and most importantly, mobile number and fingerprints.
These details, once there is an indication that a migrant labourer is involved in an offence, can be pulled up from the City police servers and crosschecked, with the fingerprints to serve as a crucial link. The District Crime Records Bureau too will be keeping both soft and hard copies of the details, the Commissioner said.
Officials involved in the process said the maximum number of labourers in the city were from West Bengal, followed by Jharkhand and Assam, while there were a few from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh as well. However, unless the Thiruvananthapuram Rural police too embarked on a similar initiative, with the Kazhakuttam area and surrounding regions witnessing major construction activities, the effort would not be complete, they said, pointing out that there were more labourers in those areas.
