A high-level meeting of senior police officers chaired by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala here on Thursday decided to form a new helpline in all districts to directly deal with the complaints of tribespeople. This is in addition to existing complaint redressing mechanisms for them.
Addressing presspersons after the meeting, Mr. Chennithala said the district-level helplines would start functioning shortly and the City Police Commissioner or the Superintendent of Police would directly handle such complaints.
Along with this, complaint boxes would be installed in all tribal hamlets. Directions were issued to senior police officers to visit tribal colonies on a monthly basis to take note of their issues and find instant solutions.
The cooperation of various other departments, including the tribal affairs and revenue departments, would be sought to address the issues, he said.
Promising stern action from the police while dealing with complaints from tribal women and children, the Minister said he would convene quarterly review meeting of senior police officers to assess the situation and suggest further action.
“With the support of District Collectors, we will shortly come up with special development programmes for all tribal hamlets in the State, which will address all their basic problems, including drinking water crisis and land-related issues,” he said.
Maoists issue
On the ‘dormant’ Maoist presence around tribal hamlets in the State, Mr. Chennithala said the police would continue their vigil and the special mobile squads already formed to look into the tribal issues would help the government on further measures to be taken for the welfare of tribespeople.
The mobile squads had been granted Rs.8 lakh each to address basic development issues in tribal hamlets, he said.