West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan said here on Friday that the law and order situation was much better in Kerala compared to some other States in the country.
He was speaking after inaugurating the ‘Swamthanam' scheme of adopting 150 HIV-positive persons, organised jointly by the Janamaithri Suraksha Scheme of the Town South Police Station and Daya Charitable Trust. Mr. Narayanan said schemes like ‘Janamaithri Suraksha' had helped bring down the crime rate.
These schemes were implemented with the cooperation of voluntary organisations and the people.
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Mr. Narayanan said diseases such as AIDS can be fought only with support from the grassroots level. “We have lot of poor people though India has made tremendous progress. There are a large number of people afflicted with HIV and blindness. It is a pity that they are left to the official agencies to look after. There should be cooperation between the public and private agencies to tackle this mammoth problem,” he said.
“During this generation, we will be able to find effective medicines to fight AIDS. There should be legislation for treatment and providing all other assistance to AIDS patients,” he suggested.
The West Bengal Governor said he would request the Chief Minister and the West Bengal government to implement schemes like ‘Janamaithri Suraksha.'
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T.K. Hamsa, MLA, special invitee to the function, said the Janamaithri Suraksha scheme was first implemented in Ottappalam municipality.
This had helped bring down crime and accidents rates there.
He said in 2008, 220 cases were registered in the Ottappalam police station. This had come down to 28 up to June this year. In 2008, there were 26 theft cases. In 2009, it came down to 12 and now up to June 2010, there were only two theft cases registered.
There has also been a decline in the number of accidents. In 2008, there were 78 accident cases. In 2009, it came down to 69 and up to June this year, there were only 32 cases of accident in Ottappalam municipal area, he said.
Justice Chettur Shankaran Nair was the chief guest at the function. The keynote address was delivered by E. Divakaran, District Superintendent of Police. K.K. Divakaran, MLA, presided. K.A. Chandran, former MLA, and K. Sethumadhavan, Manager, Mathrubhumi, spoke.
M.K. Pushkaran, Deputy Superintendent of Police, welcomed the gathering and V.S. Mohammed Kasim proposed the vote of thanks.