BHUBANESWAR: With the recent chilling murder of an elderly couple in the City still fresh in the memory, the Commissionerate of Police on Sunday interacted with senior citizens to drive home the point of self security.
Director-General of Police KB Singh, who was present at the meeting, said the State Police is committed to provide all support for the safety and security of the senior citizens for which nodal officers have been appointed in each police station of the Twin City. Besides, community police is being promoted, he said.
The interaction meeting was aimed at understanding the concerns and apprehensions of the senior citizens, specially those couples living alone.
Most of the senior citizens wanted a more responsive approach from the police. They felt that the nodal officers as well as officers manning the police stations must be sympathetic towards the problems of elderly people.
“If they give us a call on a periodical basis, it would do a world of good to our sense of security. We should feel that the police is just one call away,” said a senior citizen.
Commissioner of Police Dr RP Sharma said there are at least 2,080 senior citizens who are registered with the cells. Despite the constraints of manpower and logistics, police would try to help the elderly persons.
He, however, felt that most of them should adopt certain self security measures such as gathering details of the domestic helps, drivers and tenants. “Keeping their contact numbers and pictures should be a standard practice,” he said.
The police also requested that senior citizens must seek the help of local police while making cash transactions. Installing CCTV cameras at home and regularly staying in touch with the nodal officers should go a long way in addressing basic problems, Sharma said.