TIRUPPUR: On Tuesday, Chief Minister MK Stalin made an announcement that the Pongalur police station is set to be established soon by merging certain parts of Palladam, Kamanaickenpalayam and Avinashipalayam police stations in the city. A senior police officer told TNIE that this will reduce the workload of existing police stations under Palladam sub-division.
Sources said in the district, there are already 22 law and order police stations. In this, the Palladam sub-division has jurisdiction over the largest geographical area, but this has police stations only in Palladam, Kamanaickenpalayam and Avinashipalayam.
In this context, there has been a demand among residents for the past few months to establish a new police station with its headquarters in Pongalur, located on NH 81, between Palladam and Avinashipalayam. Further, following the murder of three members of a farming family in Semalaigaundanpalayam near Avinashipalayam, calls to strengthen police security in suburban areas rose.
A senior police officer of Tiruppur District Police said, "Pongalur police station will be established by merging certain parts of Palladam, Kamanaickenpalayam and Avinashipalayam police stations. As Tiruppur is a district with high industrial output, population is also increasing in the suburbs."
He further said, "In addition, boundaries of the three police stations in Palladam sub-division are also large. Due to this, the new police station in Pongalur will improve surveillance in Pongalur and surrounding areas. This will reduce workload of police personnel working in the other three stations."
"The new station will have 30 personnel in the first phase. The announcement has now been made after we submitted a proposal. The government order is yet to be issued and fund are yet to be allocated. The station is likely to be operational in two or three months," the officer added.
Pongalur Era Manikandan, a farmer, said, "We welcome this announcement from the government. We strongly emphasised on this request after the Semalaigoundanpalayam incident. We also presented it to Palladam MLA MSM Anandan who brought this to the attention of the government."