An integrated police control room at the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP) in Ranipet was inaugurated by Z. Annie Vijaya, DIG of Vellore on Saturday. The new facility will help the district police monitor its nine border checkposts, having 18 CCTV cameras working round-the-clock.
Accompanied by Ranipet SP Deepa Satyan, Ms. Vijaya said the new integrated surveillance system is a much-needed facility for preventing crime, especially in State borders and Chennai, the capital city. Interestingly, Ranipet district shares border with Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. With the urban local bodies polls on February 19, the facility will help enforce the existing Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by monitoring vehicle movement on key routes, including the Bengaluru Highway (NH: 48) in the district.
“As Ranipet district remains the key entry and exit point to Chennai, industrial zones in Kancheepuram and neighbouring States, such a new facility will help better surveillance in preventing crime,” said Ms. Vijaya.
The facility will be manned by a team of police personnel to track movement of vehicle and people. Dedicated telephone lines have been set-up with a two-member police team to attend to it and for alerting the nearest station of any suspicious movement. Key checkposts, including Sikkarayapuram, Pallari, Thamaraipakkam, Arumpakam, Rettaikulam, Mosur, Pallur and Pilanji, come under the new surveillance system, under Ranipet and Arakkonam police sub-divisions.
Similar centralised tracking systems are also being set-up in neighbouring districts like Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Tirupattur, which share borders with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. At present, Ranipet has 18 police stations on Law & Order (L&O) wing where, on an average, each station has at least three teams on beat. In total, there are 55 beat police teams in the district, with 110 personnel working in three shifts every day. Each beat policeman, on an average, has to make entries in 25 point books (spots). Currently, the Ranipet district has 1,150 such point books. These books are crime and accident-prone spots in the district and are under continuous surveillance.
Poll preparedness meeting
Meanwhile, a high-level poll preparedness meeting by Vellore police was organised to strengthen the existing police deployment in the wards of the Vellore city corporation and in other local bodies like Gudiyatham and Pernambut in the district.
The meeting, led by Ms. Vijaya, decided to deploy at least two constables for each ward within Vellore corporation limits, having 60 wards, and one patrol team for every five wards in other local bodies like Gudiyatham, Pallikonda and Odugathur. A total of 3,898 candidates will be contesting for 912 wards that comprises 16 municipalities, 25 town panchayats and one corporation (Vellore City Corporation).
Among the four districts, Tiruvannmalai and Ranipet have the highest number of urban local bodies (14 each).
