Proposal for Adivaram police station still in cold storage

The plan to establish a police station at Adivaram was mooted in 2010-11.

A proposal to set up a police station at Adivaram at the entry point of the Western Ghats bordering Kozhikode and Wayanad districts is still in cold storage.

Financial crunch has been cited as a reason for putting the indispensable project on hold. “The State government has no option but to keep it in abeyance,” official sources said.

Currently nine personnel led by a Grade Sub-Inspector attached to the Thamarassery police station man an outpost at Adivaram. Three constables drawn from the Traffic Department also form part of this outpost to carry out a round-the-clock patrolling across the Ghats mainly to prevent traffic snarls.

The sources said a police station at Adivaram was required especially in the wake of the threat of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) deciding to open up a new war front in the Sahyadri (Western Ghats) at the tri-junction of Karnataka-Kerala-Tamil Nadu.

The Thamarassery police station covers the entire Thamarassery-Wayanad Ghat including the sections at Adivaram and Lakkidi, gateway of Wayanad district. That was more than 30 kms on the Kozhikode-Kollegal National Highway, from Thamarassery, he said.

The three police stations, namely Thamarasery, Thiruvambady, and Kodencherry, under the Thamarassery sub division of Kozhikode Rural District function with limited resources and infrastructure. In the long run, this would result in a wobbly situation, he warned.

The plan to establish a police station at Adivaram was mooted in 2010-11 during the outbreak of the political and communal violence in rural belts in the district.

But the proposal remained on paper until the occurrence of incidents of arson and rioting in the hill regions last year.

Consequently, the Home Department wanted to revive the proposal, as the Thamarassery police and its outpost failed to tackle the surprise attack on the National Highway.

More than 50 persons, including police personnel, were injured and property valued at crores of rupees was damaged in the rampage following the protest against the K. Kasturirangan panel recommendations for ecologically sensitive areas in last November.

Then, the police team had been trapped by the rioters from the two sides during the violence. Now the circumstances have turned more dangerous.