COIMBATORE: Following complaints that some people were ‘behaving in indecently’ in public places, Coimbatore city police conducted checks at several locations, especially VOC Park and Valankulam lake bund on Tuesday. The action evoked a mixed response from public.
Under the Smart City project, the bund of Valankulam and Ukkadam Big tank have been given a make over and parks, footpaths and recreational features have been established, due to which many people, including college students visit the parks. Similarly, VOC Park and Racecourse are spots where public gather.
On Tuesday, police received a complaint, along with a few photos from VOC Park of some people bevaing in an inappropriate manner. Following the information, separate teams of police visited different public places and many people, especially students were questioned and were allegedly forced to leave the place.
A senior police officer even posted pictures of their inquiry on social media.
Some people appreciated police for the prompt action and said it would prevent ‘such activities’ in public places, while others criticised them and questioned how could police treat ordinary people visiting leisure spots ‘like criminals’. Further, they called police action as moral policing.
“These facilities are meant for people to spend time in leisure. But, without any formal complaint, police questioned many people sitting here in pairs as if they were criminals. Moral policing interferes with the individual rights of people.
If such things happen in any prohibited area, it’s okay. But asking people to leave just because they were sitting close to each other is not fair. If the police wants to monitor the area, they should install CCTVs in the area,” a college student who was questioned by police said.
When asked, city Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan said he will inquire about the incident and assured that it will not happen again. “We are taking steps to attract more people to these places. We are conscious of our activities and we don’t encourage moral policing. I will instruct the officials to avoid such activities and focus on public safety,” he said.