When Kannagi, 70, and Selvi, 68, of Mullai Nagar near Vellalore needed someone’s help to submit the application for the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme last month, Sri Gomathi, special sub-inspector (SSI) attached to the City Crime Branch came to their help.
The policewoman took the two elderly women to the application centre, helped them in filling the forms and submitted them. She also rode them back to their residences in her two-wheeler.
Ms. Gomathi is one among 20-odd police personnel who have been appointed as senior citizen liaisoning officers by the Coimbatore City Police recently.
An initiative by City Police Commissioner V. Balakrishnan, senior citizen liaisoning officers attached to all the police stations and special units in the city have become Good Samaritan to many elderly people in need.
In another instance, a 78-year-old woman approached the R.S. Puram police, allegedly after she was not taken care of by her four daughters, all of whom are married. The woman was residing alone after her husband’s demise. Coming to know about her plight, the station’s senior citizen liaisoning officer SSI K. Nandhakumar visited the house. He also held talks with the daughters and made sure that they would take care of the woman.
SSI Deva Rajan attached to the Kavundampalayam police station helped an old-age home to have a secure gate after the facility’s administrator in-charge requested for the same earlier this month. The staff were struggling without having a secure gate as destitute inmates had been going out in their absence.
According to the city police, senior citizen liaisoning officers have so far extended a helping hand to hundreds of elderly citizens in the city who were in need of various assistance. They also admitted several elderly people, who were homeless, to old-age homes.
The city police had conducted an orientation programme for police personnel who have been appointed as senior citizen liaisoning officers.
