Andhra Pradesh will take a leaf out of Singapore in policing by involving the community at large, Director-General of Police N. Sambasiva Rao said on Saturday.
Happy over the technological interventions in policing especially during Krishna Pushkarams paying dividends in 2016, the DGP told a media conference here that community policing implemented in Chittoor district on a pilot basis would be replicated in other districts as well in the new year.
Successful policing demanded community participation and working from behind, he said even while underscoring the need for a change in police personnel outlook while dealing with public.
Expressing concern over a high 24,000 accidents in the State this year with over 8,000 people succumbing to injuries, he said all the liquor shops close to National Highways would be removed as per the Supreme Court’s guidelines.
“Station House Officers concerned will be held responsible from April for any liquor sale on the national highways as drunken driving accounts for four per cent of deaths in road accidents,” said the DGP, who inaugurated an improvised website of the Prakasam police and renovated police guest house.
Mobile phone alerts would be provided to road users soon on approaching speed breakers and black spots on the Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam stretch of the Chennai-Kolkata national highway on a pilot basis shortly, he added.
He described as major achievements during 2016 the setting up of model police stations and disposal of over 11,000 of the 21,000 junk vehicles in police stations under a model Property Identification and Networking System (PINS) using Quick Response(QR) code.
Replying to a question, he said the staff shortage in the department would be resolved to some extent shortly with over 2,500 Andhra Pradesh staff now working in Telangana taking charge in the State.
Meanwhile, the police have chalked an ambitious plan to generate Rs. 100 crore per year by commercially exploiting vast tracts of land with the police across the State now in disuse, according to the DGP.
Inaugurating a fuel filling station set up on a prime land by the Prakasam police in collaboration with the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) on Saturday, the DGP said “we will make optimum use of a centrally-located sites belonging to the Police Department and earn about Rs. 100 crore in next fiscal. The fuel filling station is expected to generate an income of Rs. 2.50 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh per month.”
The modern-looking filling station came up on the busy Kothapatnam bus stand centre. The District police offices would be given 50 per cent of the revenue earned for taking up police welfare activities. The rest of the earnings would be spent at the State-level by his office, the DGP added.
“Best services will be provided in fuel quality and quantity to the users,” said Superintendent of Police C.M. Trivikram Varma.
Admitting that many houses in police quarters remained in a bad shape, the DGP promised to renovate them. The department was working out on a new housing scheme for the police personnel, he revealed.
Anomalies in promotions to some DSPs would be resolved by Sankranti, he added.
