All police stations in the city have a locked house register. The special teams involved in night rounds will visit the house registered with the station. The police are claiming poor response from the public in informing them when the residents go out of town for more than a day.
Apart from lack of awareness it could also be because of experiences such as that of a resident of a locality in Kuniyamuthur police station limits.
The resident claimed that he faced bitter experience two months ago when he went to the station with a letter regarding the date from which his family would be out of town and requested protection for his house.
“Police personnel asked me not to keep gold ornaments and silver articles at home and to handover the television, refrigerator and washing machine to my neighbour,” he said and added that the personnel also made him give in writing that there were no valuables at home.
So, this Deepavali he submitted the request letter at the commissioner’s office and also elaborated why he did not take it to the police station. He was directed to submit it to the Kuniyamuthur police station, where the letter was received without harassment.
Police Commissioner A. Amalraj said he would look into the issue and take steps to ensure that personnel at police stations do not make residents undergo hardships while they wanted to inform them on locked houses.
(Reporting by
M.K. Ananth)
