Pics: Spoorthi Ullal/Abhijith N Kolpe

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)

Mangaluru, Jan 4: Mangaluru city Police commissionarate reached the milestone of 100th police phone-in programme which was conducted here at Police commissioner's office on Friday, January 4.

Two years ago, on August 5, 2016, the first Police phone-in programme was introduced by the then police commissioner Chandrashekar, which was later carried forward by the Police commissioner T R Suresh.

In the 100th phone-in program as many as 38 calls pertaining to traffic, parking, buses not issuing tickets etc were received.
One of the callers from Ladyhill complained about Zumba training at a gym. "We can see male trainers training the ladies. Teaching Zumba to women by men is one of the rackets in city," he said to which Police commissioner T R Suresh said, "It is also an offence. We will call up Zumba organisers and we will consider the issue seriously.”

Another caller from Bejai complained that the private hospitals have enough parking spaces for their doctors but not for the visitors. “Security guards ask us to park our vehicles far away from the hospital,” he said. Commissioner assured him of taking action at the earliest.

Soon after the phone-in programme, an interactive session was held between the Police, Media and officials.

Journalist Anil Shastri said, "Police phone-in programme has helped to connect the police with the public as it is a platform to address their problems. It gained so much popularity that even the then DCP Sanjeev Patil of the city introduced it in the district of Udupi when he was deputed as the Superintendent of Police in Udupi. However, it is not taken forward by SP Laxman Nimbargi."

"During the police phone-in programme, issues releated to traffic, footpath, ticket issues have dominated. In the first as well as the 100th police phone-in programme, issue of water leakage from the trucks carrying fish is raised by the public, which means that this issue is not sorted out in the past two years," said Anil Shastri.

"Police should be more effective as they have implemented helmet rules. Action plan has to be made to make roads, people-friendly as well as driving-friendly," said Anil Shastri.

Police Commissioner T R Suresh said,"When I first took charge in 2017, the advice of Police phone-in programme came up which was very popular in Mangaluru. This helps to fill the gap between public and police. Traffic issues dominated the police phone-in programmes. We also got information about illegal activities. We never neglected them and acted immediately on the complaint made by the public."

"We have tried our level best to address most of the problems. But on few occassions, there have been few constraints," said Police commissioner T R Suresh.

Journalist Vijay Kotian raised questions about foot paths, street vendors and issuing of bus tickets.

MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer said,"Infrastructure development is MCC's duty but we dont have any kind of enforcement wing. With regards to street vendors, we have constructed seperate street vending zone but these street vendors are not responding. We have issued ID cards to them. Still they are not ready to shift into the street vending zone as their mindset is still the same. As per the MUDA 2011 master plan, we take action on those who occupy parking space in the basement. If anyone finds such offence, he or she can complain through online and stringent action will be taken."

President of district bus owners' association Dilraj Alva said,"Through phone-in programme several issues of the city buses came to light. We have introduced Whatsapp number to make it easier for the passengers to register complaint. We are going to introduce GPRS system is buses. We have 65 routes, out of which mapping is done for 35 routes. We have made a tie-up with a Mumbai-based company for E-ticketing system."

Even issue of fancy vehicle registration numbers which are not even visible came up during the interaction.

Mangaluru RTO officer John B Misquith said,"As per the guidelines there are certain dimensions for registration numbers and 95% of them are following and rest have the craze to have fancy numbers. If we find such people, we will take strict action."

2242 calls so far

Police phone-in programme, which started in the year 2016, has received 2,242 calls so far on an average of 30 calls per programme. Among the total number of calls, 1,574 calls were pertaining to traffic, 359 calls to law and order and 97 calls were pertaining to other departments.

Police commissioner Chandrashekar was part of 42 phone-in programmes, Vipul Kumar was present on four police phone-in programmes and present Police commissioner T R Suresh was part of 54 police phone-in programmes.

Felicitation

Mangaluru City Police commissionarate felicitated eight people for their service in police phone-in programmes and traffic department.

Chief traffic warden Joe Gonsalves, Traffic warden Francis Maxim Moras, Advisor for traffic maintenance Joseph D'Souza, Police commissioner office assistant Varun Alva, CCRB officer Yusuf, CCRB officer Purushottam, Freelance eventor Ganesh Mulky Nayak and auto driver Ramesh.

Mangaluru city Police commissionarate also felicitated president of District working journalists' union Srinivas Nayak Indaje.

On July 14, 2018, Mangaluru traffic east police station had organised drawing competetion for children on the subject of traffic maintainance and safety. Three children named Basavaraj, Veeresh and Jyothi from District Zilla Panchayath higher primary school Mannagudda were awarded prizes on this occasion.

DCP crime and traffic Uma Prashanth, DCP Law and order Hanumantharaya, ACP Traffic Manjunath Shetty, KSRTC Mangaluru division officer Deepak Kumar and others were present.

Police phone-in programme will be held every Friday from 10 am to 11 am. Contact numbers for the public to approach are 0824 - 222081 and 0824 - 2220830.