Reclassification of Tiruchi police stations on the anvil

Proposal for reclassifying the police stations into ‘Heavy' ‘Medium' and ‘Light' forwarded to a high-level committee.

The reclassification of police stations and seeking additional strength for the force in Tiruchi district is on the cards, with a detailed proposal to the effect, being forwarded to the State government .

Police stations in the district which are currently categorised as Type I, Type II, Type III, Type IV and Type V would be reclassified as “Heavy”, “Medium” and “Light” once the order is received from the State government .

The proposal for reclassification has been forwarded to a high-level committee which comprises officials from the Home, Finance Departments and a top police official from the State Police Headquarters.

Various parameters including the number of Indian Penal Code cases registered in one year; incidents of communal violence and special and local cases registered in the past three years; population; number of petitions received in the police stations besides presence of important commercial establishments and educational institutions would be taken into account for reclassifying each police station.

The 29 police stations in the district fall under five Sub Divisions - Tiruverambur, Jeeyapuram, Musiri, Lalgudi and Manapparai - each headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police. The Heavy, Medium and Light police stations would be in the ratio 20:30:50 respectively.

Police sources said the total strength of officers and men serving in various police stations alone in the district was over 700 including 18 Inspectors, 42 Sub Inspectors and 263 Head Constables. At a meeting of the high-level committee held at Chennai a few months ago, it was agreed that Tiruverambur, Jeeyapuram, Lalgudi and Musiri police stations could be categorised as ‘Heavy', while Manapparai, Somarasampet, Thuraiyur, Mannachanallur, Samayapuram and Vaiyampatti could be categorised as ‘Medium', the sources said.

Stations that could be categorised as ‘Light' constitute Kallakudi, Ramji Nagar, Vathalai, Pulivalam, Kollidam, Manikandam, Kattuputhur, Uppiliapuram, Thathiengarpet, Navalpet, Thottiyam, Thuvarankurichi, Boiler Plant, Thuvakudi and Siruganur. There was no change with respect to the Valanadu, Inamkulathur, Puthanatham and Pettavaithalai police stations.

The reclassification of police stations would be effected once a formal order from the State government was issued, the sources said. A separate proposal for augmenting the strength of police force by an additional 440 personnel had been forwarded to the government for approval, the source added.