VIJAYAWADA: City police commissioner AB Venkateswara Rao is keen on experimenting with ideas for the city to have good policing, traffic management and effective crime control mechanism.
Sharing his views on different aspects of policing and traffic management in the city, now part of the capital region during ‘Meet the Press’ organised by the AP Journalists Forum (APJF) here Sunday, Rao defended intensive night patrolling they had taken up in November last, which later on got labelled as ‘night domination’ and was entangled in a legal fight.
“In the first place, we have not used the word ‘night domination’ and secondly we have not issued any notification in that regard. What we did was issue a press release to inform the public about our intention to make the city safe by intensifying checks at night so the common man can move freely. In fact it was welcomed by large sections of people as evident from surveys conducted by the media and even the government using IVRS. However, some mediapersons and intelligentsia seem to have difficulty in understanding the concept,” he said.
The Commissioner, who said they have not deviated from any law, demanded to know what is wrong in trying to dominate night to free it from criminals and make the city safe for its inhabitants. “Police are vested with vast powers and sometimes they do get misused. To prevent that from happening, there are checks and balances in various forms of supervision. Our primary duty is to safeguard the lives and interest of the people and at the same time ensure that the people of the city move freely without any fear,” he said.
Rao, who successfully experimented with night food parks, now took up the task of resurrecting night shelters meant for the homeless and destitutes. “We are making those shelters livable, so daily wage earners, who migrate to city and have no roof over their heads can spend the night safe and secure,” he said. In regard to his experiment with Bandar Road traffic, he said using the roundabouts is common in many countries. “Unfortunately, people here have no road and traffic sense. Even in countries like Sri Lanka, road sense is well ingrained in the people. Children are taught about Gandhi and Jhansi Lakshmibai, but not educated about road use and traffic rules,” he said.
The Commissioner intends to educate children on road safety and traffic rules by giving them hands-on experience. In regard to CC camera network for digital surveillance of the city, Rao felt it was a costly proposition and the department is now contemplating to experiment with solar powered self-recording cameras for 1,000 and odd lanes and bylanes of the city with public cooperation.
He called upon people to make use of programmes like ‘FIR at door steps’ and ‘Dial 100’ which are transparent.