As the Sankranti fervour has already begun, the police are on their toes to maintain the law and order, especially to deal with the offenders who seize the opportune moment of committing house break-ins as many of the citizens go to their native places to celebrate the festival.
With the harvest festival all set to begin from Monday, the city and district police have cancelled all leaves of the personnel to increase their presence during the three-day festivity when most of the people leave their homes locked to go back their native places.
“As many leave their homes, it is time for the house break-in offenders to strike. To prevent such happenings, we have increased the police beats in all areas,” DCP (Crimes) A.R. Damodhar said.
About two years ago, the city police launched the LHMS (Locked houses monitoring system) and have been insisting that people should utilise the facility to protect their homes. “This year, we have undertaken a drive and the response has been good so far. We will deploy around 150 cameras at the locked houses registered through the LHMS and the cameras will be monitored from the control room,” the DCP explained.
Shopping zones
This apart, the City Police have formed special teams, involving around 100 personnel, to improve the beat system, during the festive days. “Apart from 100 uniformed men, we have already deployed another 100 in mufti, drawn from all departments, to monitor the shopping zones such as Dabagardens, Jagadamba Junction, Gajuwaka and Dwarakanagar. Every year, we register about 40 to 50 bag snatching cases a day or two before the main festival from shopping zones,” he said.
Prohibitory orders
Meanwhile, the Visakhapatnam Rural Police have gone a step ahead by imposing Section 144 in the crime prone areas such as Narsipatnam, Anakapalle, Chodavaram and Yellamanchili and have bond over the habitual offenders.
“We have issued 50 FINS (fingerprint identification network system) hand-held machines to the beat teams. On suspicion, they can check anyone’s fingerprints through the machine that is connected to the database. And if needed, they can bind over the individual,” Rural SP Attada Babujee said.
The District Police are also monitoring the old offenders and have asked them to report to the nearest police station. “We have also taken up an aggressive awareness campaign, educating the people on what to do and to opt for the LHMS,” Mr. Babujee said.
Additional SP P.V. Ravi Kumar cautioned that during this season, chain snatchers, house break-in offenders and attention diversion gangs might be on the prowl. He cautioned people not to allow any person, who poses to perform puja to ornaments.
“During Sankranti, people have sentiments to offer gold ornaments for puja, and these offenders pose as purohits and swap the original with the duplicate by diverting the attention of the inmates,” he said.
