Observing that the idea of a people-friendly police and police-friendly people is the key objective of the Janamaithri Suraksha Scheme of the Kerala Police, Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said that the State government’s flagship Bill drafted to ensure protection of women and children will involve the public for the improvement of the policing system in the State.
Inaugurating the district-level seminar held here on Tuesday as part of extending the Janamaithri Suraksha Scheme to seven more police stations in the district, the Minister said that many suggestions mentioned in the Justice Verma Commission report had been collectively discussed even before the commission was constituted in the wake of the Delhi rape incident. The effort of the police in the State was to ensure that no hapless woman in the State should shed tears, he added.
Admitting that there were some inadequacies in the investigation wing of the police, Mr. Radhakrishnan said that 10,000 more police personnel should be recruited to achieve the national average people-police ratio of 500:1 as against the prevailing ratio of 800:1. The existing strength of the police force in the State being
54,000, financial liability was a major constraint for increasing the strength of the force, he said adding that the Kerala should achieve that ratio. Stating that the Janamaithri Suraksha Scheme was widely appreciated even internationally, the Minister said that the scheme allowed the police to go to the people and not to frighten them.
Observing that the police system could be improved only with the support of the people, the government was serving as a facilitator for bringing both the police and the public together. Kerala had set the model for the entire country by being the topper in law and order maintenance, he said attributing this achievement to the mutual co-operation between the public and the police. He said that the capture of Devindar Singh alias Bunty Chor from Pune in connection with a house break-in in the capital was the latest example of the
State police’s skill to arrest fugitives from their safe havens anywhere in the country. The law enforcers should not go astray, he said urging the police force to act against criminal activities both within the force and outside. The police could not afford to do anything that would misguide the new generation of police personnel coming up in the State, the Minister noted.
A.P. Abdullakutty, MLA, presided over the function. K.M. Shaji, MLA, Additional Director General of Police (Armed Police Battalion and State nodal officer for Janamaithri), District Collector Rathan Kelkar, District Police Chief Rahul R. Nair, district panchayat president K.M. Sarala, municipal chairperson M.C. Sreeja, Assistant Collector Amith Meena and District Medical Officer R. Ramesh were among those present at the function.
