People asked to repose faith in police

By B.S.Ramesh

BANGALORE, MAY 8. The Director-General and Inspector-General of Police, Dr. K.Sreenivasan, said here on Tuesday that the police were not instruments of oppression but a vital cog in society to maintain law and order.

He was speaking at the ``Police-public grievances meeting'' held at Gandhibazar in Basavanagudi on Tuesday.

The police were not enemies but friends of people, Dr. Sreenivasan said, and urged the public to repose faith in them. The feeling that the police were ``anti-people'' should go, he added.

Children were told by their parents that the police would come and take them away if they misbehaved. Such an attitude should go if police-public cooperation was to grow, he said.

The citizens might find it difficult to come to the offices of the senior police officers and give suggestions. Instead, they could utilise such fora not only to give suggestions but also help police to set right the inadequacies in the department.

Recalling his association with Basavanagudi, he said he had lived and studied in the area before joining the police force. Bangalore, he said, was one of the best administered cities in the country, and this was due to the cooperation extended by the people to various departments, including the police.

The City's population had touched 70 lakhs and the police were functioning efficiently to maintain law and order despite several constraints. A better police-public co-operation would help bring down the crime rate.

The Basavanagudi MLA, Mr. K.N.Subba Reddy, stressed the need to regulate traffic in Gandhibaazar area and on DVG Road. Vehicles could be allowed to park on DVG Road.

This was the second time that such a police-public interaction meeting was being held in Basavanagudi, he said.

Mr. P.R.Ramesh, Leader of the Congress in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), said despite several letters to the City police, no action had been taken to prevent the private bus- owners from parking their vehicles in V.V.Puram and surrounding areas. Besides, the police outposts at Sajjan Rao Circle and Parvathipura were in bad condition, he added.

The BJP Councillor, Mr. Satyanarayana, said private buses were stopping on the 7th Main Road in N.R. Colony to carry passengers from Hoskerahalli and surrounding areas. This was causing inconvenience to the people of the area. He urged the police to direct the owners of private buses to use the Ring Road.

He said the area around the N.R.Colony bus-stand was congested due to petty shops and parking of vehicles there. People, particularly senior citizens, were finding it difficult to cross the road. Besides, the traffic police station at Thyagarajanagar lacked adequate staff to regulate traffic. Maxi-cabs and vans were always found parked near the Vidyapetha causing inconvenience to the residents of the locality.

Mr. Hutchiah, Councillor, said the police had registered several false cases against him. ``If the police could register such cases against a people's representative, imagine what would happen to a layman?,'' he asked. He urged the City police to open an outpost at Srinagar.

The Congress Councillor, Mr. Chandrashekar, urged the police to put an end to gambling and betting in some parts of Basavanagudi.

A resident of Police Station Road in Basavanagudi said that the police should make arrangements for parking vehicles to ease congestion on the road. Another resident said that there were many schools and colleges in Basavanagudi and students were being harassed by anti-social elements.

The residents submitted memoranda to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. T. Madiyal. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), Mr. Sunil Kumar, and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Dr. Parashivamurthy, were present.

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