HYDERABAD: The year 2021 has been an incident-free year without any law and order issues in the state except for stray incidents at Bhainsa in Nirmal district and the police department was successful in thwarting desperate efforts of the banned CPI (Maoist) party to revive their activities in Telangana, said Telangana DGP M Mahender Reddy, while presenting the annual round-up on Friday.
However, overall crime has increased by four percent, including grave offences like murder for gain, robberies, murders, culpable homicide, kidnap and rape. Cybercrime has also seen a four-fold increase during the year, in comparison with previous years.
The conviction rate increased in Telangana during 2021 from 48.5 percent in 2020 to 50.03 percent. This includes the death sentence in one case and life imprisonment in 80 cases. A total of 38,312 cases ended in conviction this year, Mahender Reddy said.
Technology played a major role in policing and crime detection, he said. Telangana now has over 8.50 lakh CCTV cameras, of which the lion's share are installed in the tri-commissionerates of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda. In 2021 alone, 1,86,568 cameras were installed. The goal to install 10 lakh cameras in the state, set up by the state government, would be achieved soon.
“This could be achieved with the participation of the public and communities. The credit in making the state more safe goes to the public, as they have responded to the call of the government and joined hands in this project,” said Mahender Reddy.
Several initiatives to increase awareness on cyber crimes and crimes against women were introduced during the year. A state of art She Cyber Lab equipped with advanced tools and cyber forensics for special focus on crimes against women and cybercrimes started functioning. Through the CybHER program, over 55 lakh people including women, youth, students and several other sections of society have been reached.
Through the Cyber Ambassadors project, training is being imparted to students from government schools across the state, empowering them to spread cyber safety awareness. “We are also planning to work with the education department to start safety clubs in educational institutions, once they start functioning on a full scale,” Mahender Reddy added.
Police welfare has also been given utmost importance and in accordance with the state government orders, petrol pumps and function halls started operation under police control. The surplus income from these establishments would be credited to the police welfare fund, which in turn would be distributed to the personnel on interest free or with a minimum interest basis for marriage in families, education of their children and other needs.
“Our vision is that all police personnel would have their own house or a flat by the time they retire from service,” he said.