COIMBATORE: Coimbatore city police has requested the Head of the Police Force to allocate one more company of male home guards personnel to handle the workload as five more police stations have been opened in the city limits.
According to sources, the jurisdiction of Coimbatore city police was expanded three months ago with the addition of Thudiyalur and Vadavalli police stations which were functioning under Coimbatore district (rural) police. Besides, new stations were opened in Karumbukadai, Sundarapuram and Kavundampalayam early this year. Though the government allocated personnel to the new stations, sources said the force is facing a shortage. The requisition for additional allocation was made by home guards commander cum City Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan.
Currently, four companies of Home Guards, including one women company, each consisting 110 trained personnel, are deployed in the city. “We need the support of home guards especially for activities like traffic control and beat patrolling. Without them, regular police personnel cannot manage the tasks. After the increase in the number of stations, we need at least 10 home guards in a station,” said a senior police officer.
Working as home guards is a voluntary role. Since the job is not permanent, many usually work part-time. A home guard personnel gets at least 12 -14 days of work including the special callouts on a shift basis in a month and they get an honorarium of Rs 560 per day.
“The allocated strength of home guards to the Coimbatore city is 440 and recently we filled the vacancies by recruiting 43 personnel including 4 women and one transgender person. They will join duty in February after completing the 45 days of training. Meanwhile, we have requested for one more company to tackle the workload” said TK Dhanasekar, area commander of the home guards.
“In Coimbatore city around 50 home guards have been deputed for traffic regulation along with the regular police personnel. They work for four hours during the peak hours. Also, they go for beat patrolling during their eight hours of night duty. Increasing their strength in Coimbatore city will help the police as well as the public as their role is commendable in traffic management and crime prevention,” Dhanasekar added.