Effective crime preventive measures taken by the Madurai City Police have brought down crime rate in the city in 2020.
“Though the lockdown due to pandemic helped in reduction in number of burglary, chain snatching and accident cases, our sustained efforts to keep a tab on criminals and visible policing have fetched us good results,” Commissioner of Police Prem Anand Sinha said.
Since people remained indoors, crimes and accidents came down in March, April and May, he added. Mr. Sinha said that initiation of preventive detention under Section 109 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) against 719 anti-social and rowdy elements and under Section 110 of CrPC against as many as 1,329 persons by bonding them over for good conduct, lesser number of grave crime cases has been reported.
Further, the policemen kept a close surveillance of anti-social elements and history-sheeted persons.
Quick action on petitions received from members of public at police station level helped in minimising crime offences significantly. The police also organised petition melas in all ranges to redress grievances, he added.
A sustained drive against movement of narcotic drugs resulted in seizure of 1,116 kg of ganja in 345 cases in 2020. “The number of cases and quantum of seizures is huge when compared to 138 cases and seizure of 273 kg of narcotics substances last year,” the Commissioner said.
Erection of road dividers, zig zag barricades in accident-prone areas with the help of Highways Department and Corporation had helped in reduction of road accidents.
A total of 81 persons lost their lives in 75 fatal accidents in 2020 as against 193 lives in 185 accidents in 2019. Stricter enforcement of traffic rules also contributed for the reduction in number of accidents, he added.
The number of cases against traffic rules violators increased to 5,53,725 in 2020 as against 2,29,053 cases in 2019.
Similarly, 801 persons were injured in 682 non-fatal accidents reported in 2019 Only 487 persons were injured in 455 reported non-fatal cases in 2020 as against 801 persons getting injured in 682 accidents in the previous year.
