Safety pins will now keep chain snatchers away at Manappuram

Devotees told to pin chain and dress together to foil snatching bids

In devotion: People who thronged the Shivaratri Manappuram at Aluva on Friday night.

The proverb that even a blade of grass can be turned into a weapon is something that the Ernakulam Rural Police seem to have taken quite seriously.

Only, they have replaced grass with a safety pin in an attempt to keep at bay chain snatchers targeting devotees assembling in large numbers at the Aluva Manappuram in connection with the Shivaratri festival.

The police plan to distribute safety pins to people with the instruction to pin the chain and dress together so that any attempt to snatch the chain will alert the person, provoking a swift response to foil the bid.

“We had successfully implemented it during the Thiruvairanikulam temple festival recently where it was a hit,” said K. Karthik, District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural). The police chose to attribute the absence of chain snatching attempts at Thiruvairanikulam to the novel ploy.

The Safety Pin Project, however, at best evoked mixed response on the Facebook page of the rural police. There were people wondering why the police were taking so much pain when they could have simply asked people not to wear ornaments while visiting crowded places. Meanwhile, the police opened a round-the-clock control room at the Aluva Manappuram on Friday to coordinate the various security activities. Mr. Karthik urged people to report any child missing case to the control room at the earliest for immediate action. Footage from around 45 CCTVs at the Manappuram will also be monitored at the control room.

Over 1,500 police personnel have been deployed to ensure smooth conduct of the festival. Led by Mr. Karthik and Aluva Deputy Superintendent of Police G. Venu, 10 DySPs, 30 inspectors, 164 sub inspectors and assistant sub inspectors, 1,500 civil police officers, and 200 women civil police officers have been deployed on the Manappuram and nearby areas.