In November last year, Namrata Mahajan, a woman passenger travelling alone in a train in Maharashtra, sought help through a tweet directed to the Twitter handle of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, and help reached her instantly.
A few days ago, the local police were able to recover Rs. 2 lakh left by a commuter in an auto-rickshaw, within two hours, by using the newly installed CC Tv camera network and the unique numbering system of the autos.
These can be called success stories of a programmes launched to benefit ‘Aam Aadmi’.
But two programmes, Abhayam and iClik (Instant-Complaint Login Internet Kiosk), launched by the police have not yielded the desired results, despite they being people-friendly programmes.
Both the projects were launched simultaneously amid much fanfare by Deputy Chief Minister Nimmakayala Chinarajappa on January 20, 2015 but so far the results have not been encouraging.
While Abhayam, is a mobile app designed to empower the citizen to protect themselves in times of crisis by the click of a button, iClik on the other hand is an instant complaint login internet Kiosk, where one can just walk in and file a complaint pertaining to any type of crime.
At a recent meeting, DGP J.V. Ramudu revealed that from January 20, 2015, (all over the state), about 5,580 complaints were registered through iClik and 776 FIRs were registered. And in the case of Abhayam the total complaints received was 4,561 and action was initiated against just 177 cases.
What is lacking
According to a senior police officer, there have been no major success stories for the programmes, which could have been converted into good awareness campaign messages.
Sources say the awareness campaign in general has also been low. “Many still feel that Abhayam App was developed only for women. Which is not the case, it is for anybody in distress,” said a senior police officer.
Some feel that the choice of setting up of the iClik machines has been wrong. “There is no point in installing the machines at plush shopping malls. They have to be installed at public utility places and within the reach of common man,” said another officer.
Sources, say monitoring of the iClik complaints and response to Abhayam is also under question, as the manpower-starved police force in the State have been over burdened with bandobust duties, especially in cities such as Tirupati, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.
Few takers for the people-friendly move launched by police in January 2015
