SALEM: ‘Child corner,’ a room equipped with books and drawing materials in which juvenile suspects are questioned; special cell for women; weekly counselling sessions for women facing family problems. The All-Women Police Station in Suramangalam in the city paints a picture that is so different from the look and feel of any other station.
The efforts of the authorities finally paid off on Thursday when it was chosen by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs as the second best police station in the country. In a statement, the ministry said that ranking system was introduced based on the directives issued by PM Narendra Modi during a conference of DGPs in Gujarat in 2015.
“The Centre initiated the ranking system to incentivise effective functioning of police stations and to bring in a healthy competition among them,” it said, adding that during the conference of the DGPs, Modi had also directed the officials to lay down parameters for grading police stations and assessing their performance based on feedback.
The ministry’s press release said that this year’s survey for selecting best police stations was carried out under challenging circumstances owing to the lockdown. The number of police stations initially selected were three from those States having more than 750 police stations, two from all other states and Delhi and one each from Union Territorries.
As many as 75 police stations were selected for the next stage of the ranking process. In the final stage, 19 parameters were identified to evaluate the standards of service delivery. Meanwhile, Salem police Commissioner T Senthil Kumar and top officials met Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at Circuit House and showed him the prize. The Chief Minister congratulated the officials for their efforts.