Residents are busy during summer holidays going out on vacations, within the country or to foreign locations.
However, only a few of them inform the police that the house would be locked for the specific number of days.
Most of the residents rely on the resident welfare associations and private security guards employed by the welfare associations to ensure that their houses and belongings are safe when they are out of town.
At every awareness meeting organised by the police in residential areas, the local police stations do stress on keeping the police informed of locked houses, says a police officer.
The police are also in the process of identifying locked houses and checking them regularly.
The public could inform the police about their house remaining unoccupied for a few days by calling the police control room number 100 — which will be answered round the clock.
The personnel in the control room pass on the information to the police stations concerned, from where the police personnel on night rounds visit the houses during their night patrolling.
The city police websitewww.coimbatorecity police.comalso states that a resident could inform the inspector by sending them an SMS that their house will remain locked for a said period. But the public are unable to make use of this facility as they are clueless on where to find the number of the police respective inspector.
On the other hand, more residents rely on their neighbours, night watchmen of the locality and resident welfare association to keep a check on their house in their absence.
It is more because police may not be able to visit the locked houses on a day-to-day basis. In the fringe areas of the city, the residents feel that their neighbours would have a better update on security when the house is locked. M. Iyyappan President of Poompuhar Nagar Welfare Association, near Thudiyalur, said that security guards are asked to check locked house at least thrice at nights when residents inform them that they would be out of town.
Reporting by
M.K. Ananth