HYDERABAD: The Telangana police are preparing to put in place a village police officer system to prevent crimes against women. Such a system was introduced earlier, but has not been effective due to a shortage of staff.
Sources told TNIE that considering the Disha case, the cops want each police station to appoint constables, HCs or ASIS, one for each village under their limits, to keep an eye on local happenings and determine whether steps to protect women are needed.
The new setup will come into force soon in all 33 districts of the state, except in the three police commissionerates of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda. Superintendents of Police will coordinate the work of the new setup at the district level.
For instance, each mandal now has a police station and adequate staff, following the latest recruitment of SIs and constables. Based on the need, constables, head constables, and assistant sub-inspectors are assigned duties as village police officers to ensure law enforcement in an around a village.
“Village police officers, with help from the panchayat secretary and revenue staff, will learn what is happening in the villages and whether there is a threat to women from the local youth,” a police official said.
“The village police will mingle with locals and learn how the youth behave. It will be done on a day-to-day basis. By evening, they will send a report to their seniors. Based on these reports, the seniors will analyse the situations in villages and identify miscreants and potential troublemakers,” said the official.
Since the creation of new districts in the State, there are as many as 10,000 revenue villages. The details of village police officers — including the name and mobile number — will be put up at the panchayat office.
The police said they cannot bid goodbye to the earlier system of depending on informants, most of whom have a criminal record.With cops in all villages, they will also get information about the activities from officials, rather than only informants, the officer said.