Lucknow, Oct 2 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Police will soon constitute special cells for juveniles in all districts of the state, an official said Wednesday.

Besides monitoring the rise in crimes involving juveniles, these cells would also try to counsel them and bring about behavioural changes.

Much before the gang rape of a young woman on a moving bus in Delhi last year, the Allahabad High Court (HC) had directed the state police in 2011 to create such cells and control the spurt in juvenile crimes.

Officials told IANS that Director General of Police Devraj Nagar recently wrote to all zonal inspector generals to oversee the formation of such special cells.

These special cells would also attend to complaints coming from juvenile centres. The two-tier system will be headed at police station-level by a sub-inspector while at the district level it would be headed by a superintendent level officer.

A female and a male social worker would also be included in the cell to keep a watch on police behaviour towards a juvenile criminal, officials said.

Like in other parts of the country, juvenile crimes have shot through the roof in Uttar Pradesh and these crimes largely involve chain snatching, burglary, robbery, theft, molestation, rape and murder, said an official.