In a rare initiative, the Mysuru district police has printed information handbooks to be distributed to the public for free.
The four handbooks, all printed in Kannada, seek to provide a range of information to the general public pertaining to the Indian Constitution, laws, rules, government schemes, contact numbers of government officials, and more. Thousands of copies of the handbooks have been printed under the Crime Prevention Month funds and are ready for distribution.
One of the handbooks is a comprehensive telephone directory containing the phone numbers of government officials of different departments at both the district and State levels. “These directories will be made available in each of the 1,693 villages of Mysuru district. One directory each will be kept in the village school, library, and an NGO apart from the police stations for the benefit of the general public,” said Ravi Channanavar, Superintendent of Mysuru district police.
Another book provides information on the Indian Constitution, administrative machinery, legal rights and government schemes for the people. One book is exclusively dedicated to facilities available to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes from the government.
The Mysuru district police has also brought out a book on comprehensive data about the police department, its day-to-day functioning, duties and powers of different police officials, and other such information. A section in the booklet also contains guidelines for child safety to be followed by schools and teachers, besides the rules outlined under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
“When I started attending the Karnataka Developmental Programme (KDP) review meetings at the district level, I realised that there were several schemes and programmes of the government I was not aware of. When I, as a Superintendent of Police was not aware of this, there may be a lot of people out there who need to be made aware of government programmes and schemes”, said Mr. Channanavar.
He said he wants police officials to go an extra mile. “If somebody comes to the police station with an issue pertaining to some other department, say horticulture, the police officials, instead of turning away such people, should give him the contact numbers of the officials from other government departments. We want to become more people-friendly,” he remarked.
