BENGALURU: Police Commissioner M N Reddi on Saturday announced a host of plans to make the city ‘child-safe’.
The city will get a one-of-its-kind Student Police Corps to get youngsters help the police in maintaining law and order in the city.
“There is a plan to raise a student corps on the lines of National Cadet Corps (NCC). These students will have their own uniform, will train others about civic issues and responsibilities. They will be our eyes and ears in various places across the city,” Reddi said.
He was one of the speakers at a seminar on child abuse organised by the Mahila Dakshata Samiti at the Commissioner’s Office.
More Children Helplines soon
Addressing issues raised by parents, Reddi said they were looking into the issue of calls to the child helplines not getting through. “The police department has a children’s helpline 10924 and we will be setting up more lines soon. This will reduce the number of waiting and unanswered calls,” he informed.
Father George, executive director, BOSCO, said that even 1098 would be more accessible.
“We are implementing a new technology which will allow calls on wait to be answered. Currently, we get four calls every minute, which means another four calls are on wait or get a busy tone. The new technology will address this issue,” he said.
Visits to Police Stations
The top cop also said that they were looking at changing the perception children have towards the police. “Children fear the police and we want to change that. For this, we have decided that the last Saturday of the month will be ‘visit the police station’ day,” he said. As part of this initiative, children can visit Police stations of their locality and talk to the cops, see how they work and interact with them.
“We want them to know and believe that we are here to protect them,” the Commissioner said.
Also present at the event were Dr Ali Khwaja, chairman, Khwaja Academy, Dr Latha Christie, Associate Director, DRDO and Advocate Sachidananda.