A small idea can be life changing. Adilabad police has initiated a simple effort to become more accessible to general public to improve the quality of policing in this backward tribal district known for the reluctance of people in contacting police even in dire situations.
Every village in the district now has the numbers of concerned police officers displayed prominently on the walls of the gram panchayat building or a house close to the village square. This saves considerable time and energy for an aggrieved person or someone else with good reason to get in touch with the law enforcers.
“The idea is to instil confidence among the poor people living in far flung villages that help is at hand,” observes Adilabad Superintendent of Police Tarun Joshi. “We are asking people to inform us even those problems which are not directly our concern,” he adds.
“It is a welcome initiative,” asserts Arka Judagi Rao, the Patel or headman of the Gond Adivasi hamlet Kothaguda in Bazarhatnoor mandal. “Things will improve if we are able to talk with police officers on cell phone,” he says.
The initiative launched just a month ago is called ‘Police Mee Kosam or Police For You’ and has a police constable earmarked to individual habitations as Village Police Officer (VPO). It is the duty of the VPO to periodically visit the villages under his jurisdiction and interact with locals to learn about their problems besides collecting information on the general crime.
The periodicity of visit depends upon the distance of given villages from the police station. In the hilly areas of Adilabad, some villages are located even 30 km away from the police station.
“The approach helps us keep abreast of issues. Villagers also stand to benefit as we pass on their grievances to other concerned departments for speedy action,” Mr. Joshi points out.
“The cell phone number approach suits our place as almost the entire area has good mobile connectivity despite the hilly terrain and every individual owns an instrument. A call on the cell phone means quicker response from us,” opines Boath Circle Inspector B. Mohan.
Adilabad has 866 gram panchayats encompassing about 1,600 rural habitations where the Police Mee Kosam is being implemented. The programme also incorporates sensitisation of police towards people's problems.
