Kolkata Police

"We have decided to instal CCTV cameras at telephone booths, especially at major PCOs," said police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti on Friday, adding that strict vigil would continue till Diwali.

Police have also planned to instal CCTV cameras at 120 major intersections in the city along with a few electronic gadgets to monitor the movement of vehicles. "We are expecting all major intersections to come under the lens before Diwali," said S N Sarkar, special commissioner of police.

Chakrabarti also hinted at holding talks with KMC to introduce security measures as one of the main criteria for getting licence or no-objection certificates of the buildings. Greeting the people for their co-operation during the Puja, the commissioner said: "Co-operation from the public helped us in maintaining smooth traffic as well as avoiding trouble."

Glimpse of technology

• CCTVs will be installed on the roads of New Town.
  
• Policemen will monitor traffic movements and immediately identify any vehicle that commits a crime or violates traffic rules, seated from their office

"If the police department does not have the money, Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (HIDCO) will provide it," claimed Deb, who is also the chairman of HIDCO.

It is predicted that New Town will have a total population of more than 2.5 lakh in the near future.

Security arrangements have been beefed up in all important places across the city. Additional police personnel have already been deployed in all metro stations. It was learnt that strength of police in Metro stations and railway stations have been increased from 70 to 250. The city police officers are now busy examining Intelligence reports to prepare a foolproof security network.

The puja committees have been asked to install security gadgets like close circuit televisions, hand metal detectors and door frame metal detectors in the pandals. The security system would be controlled jointly by the puja committee and police personnel. Apart from imparting training to volunteers of `puja committees, city police has also formed a special "anti-sabotage" team comprising policemen from the bomb detection and disposal squad. The team would be kept ready to move anywhere in a shortest span of time during emergencies

To help put a check on this, Google India, as a part of their BeNetSmart awareness initiative, carried out an awareness campaign in nine schools in Kolkata on Tuesday.

"We decided to start a campaign to help students know how to avoid misuse of the internet and inculcate in them the best cyber practices," said Rishi S Jaitly, policy analyst, Google India Pvt Ltd. The team interacted with 5,000 students in the city, added Jaitly.

The nationwide programme first took off from Mumbai and Chennai after which it came to Kolkata. In this campaign, Kolkata Police assisted Google India in educating school students about proper internet usage.

According to Jaitly, the Internet and Mobile Association of India, along with the police, are a part of this campaign.

“The main objective of the initiative is to decentralise the traffic system and to ensure that vehicle flow is controlled more easily and with perfection,” said Prasanta Chando, the Siliguri deputy superintendent of police (traffic).

The posts began functioning recently and this is the first time in north Bengal and fourth in the state that such traffic controlling system has been introduced.

“The system was first launched in Calcutta. Later, it was introduced in Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas, mainly because of the traffic congestion in the suburbs of the state capital,” said Chando.

But for the woman police officers manning traffic at important crossings, it was another day albeit a shaky one in office.

They've been on traffic duty for the first time since Saturday. The chaotic traffic and the jaywalkers did make them a bit edgy, but they were sure the hitches were temporary.

"I am with the force and I am supposed to perform whatever duty is assigned to me. This is the first time I am manning traffic. It is a different ball game. I will be more confident in the days to come," said Bani Das, who has been deputed at the Park Circus crossing. First with Gariahat and New Alipore police stations and then with headquarters, Das entered a new terrain on Saturday.

The telephone numbers of certain police stations have not been updated on the website which still reads these numbers as “do not exist” ones, causing harassment to the public.

The website, www.kolkatapolice.org, was created for the convenience of the people of the city and is supposed to provide them with useful information about the structure of the city police, contact numbers of all 48 police stations and senior police officers. But unfortunately telephone numbers of some police stations are shown in the website as does not exist. This certainly has left people confused.

Interestingly, the city police's top brass are unaware of this discrepancy and are not even aware as to why these numbers are out of order. For instance, if a person dials the number of the Beniapukur police station (24840100) or the Narkeldanga police station (23630100), al he get to hear from the other end is that "this number does not exist". A resident of Chitpur also alleged that the telephone number of Chitpore police station (25329086) has been out of service for a long time now.

A senior officer of Chitpore police station said that the particular number was out service due to some technical fault.

Drivers of government vehicles could be trained next as part of the campaign for safer city roads.

“The move to train our drivers was initiated after we found them violating traffic norms. Besides, we received calls from people who have witnessed rash driving by police drivers,” deputy commissioner (traffic) Manoj Verma said.

Batches of 50 drivers each are being taught safe-driving skills and reminded about basic road rules at the Traffic Training School since Monday. It will continue till Sunday.

“We need to change their mindset. They know traffic norms but do not follow them. Our aim is to make them understand that no one is above the law,” Verma said.

Drivers of government vehicles could be trained next as part of the campaign for safer city roads.

On Monday, a city traffic police team led by deputy commissioner (traffic) M K Verma chose Loudon Street and Rawdon Street to implement some new traffic measures. Two big schools La Martiniere for Boys and Girls are located on these roads. "When the schools break for the day, an additional row of cars are parked on the roads, which hampers vehicular movement. Both roads get choked in the afternoon," said a senior traffic police officer.

Police, who have till now had a harrowing time managing traffic on these roads, were looking for a sustainable solution. "We decided to ban the extra parking row from the Shakespeare Sarani crossing to AJC Bose Road crossing till 2 pm. We asked parents to get off only after crossing the school gate and park their cars in designated areas beyond Shakespeare Sarani and AJC Bose Road," said another officer.

• On-road parking banned Special lane for school * cars Arrive, drop or pick up your child, leave Get off car beyond school gate
  
• Schools near each other to get over at different times

However, details are not known as Kolkata Commissioner of Police Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti talking to PTI on Tuesday was not forthcoming, saying only that the plans were there, but more would be said at a later date.

Sources in the Kolkata Police said that the STF unit is likely to come up in the next two months and it would be equipped with all modern arms and ammunition so that they can deal with all kinds of situation.

"It is expected to be headed by an officer of DIG rank. It would also include a Core Group whose main job would be to collect and analyse information on cross-border infiltration, alleged terror outfit cells in the city and illegal immigrants," a highly placed source in Kolkata Police said.

"It would be outfitted with high-tech gadgets or night vision and tracking. They would also be armed with sophisticated weapons including sniper rifles, AK-series assault rifles and smart anti-armour missile systems. In all probability the personnel would be drawn from the Armed Police battalion" the sources said.

Meanwhile, the Special Branch of Kolkata Police has started a workshop for the officer-in-charge and the additional officer-in-charge to make them aware of the explosives and their possible hideouts.

The Domestic Help Profile Form can be downloaded free from www.kolkatapolice.org. "One needs to fill up the form, attach a picture of the help and submit it to the local police station," said Pradip Chattopadhyay, the joint commissioner of police (administration). "We are trying to introduce online submission of forms as well."

The authorities believe the move will encourage Calcuttans to keep the cops informed about details of domestic help a must for effective policing.

There have been instances of help cleaning out their employers' houses or even murdering the residents.

To help prevent such incidents, the police for the past four years have been asking Calcuttans for details of their help. But the response is far from encouraging.

"We have received only 12 forms in the past four years," said an officer of New Alipore police station.

"With the forms being uploaded on the Net, I hope more people will come forward to share identification details of their help with us," said joint commissioner Chatterjee.

Most citizens complain that the help do not want to be photographed. "They run away if forced to be clicked," said a central Calcutta resident.

Officers suggested that the help be photographed along with the members of the employers' families. "For instance, a babysitter can be photographed with the baby," said a senior officer in the Lalbazar control room.

Seven matches would be played at the Eden starting from April 20 and for every match 5,500 men in uniform and 1,500 men in plain clothes would be deployed, DC (headquarters) Vineet Goyal said on wednesday.

The policemen deployed will be in addition to regular personnel on duty. They will look after security at the playing arena, manage traffic around the venue, take care of VIPs and set up cordons around hotels where the players and the VIPs will put up.

Goyal said calculating the rate of payment at Rs 389 for a constable, Rs 457 for an ASI, Rs 671 for a SI and Rs 822 for an inspector for six-hour duty as also a food allowance of Rs 900 per day the total amount would be around Rs 25 to 30 lakh.

Senior officers said a clock-wise traffic system will be adopted around Park Circus Maidan to ensure uni-directional movement of vehicles. Darga Road to the east will be made oneway during fair hours with traffic allowed to move from CIT Road towards Bridge No. 4 and New Park Street.

While police will attempt to keep dual traffic flow on Suhrawardy Avenue to the north of the maidan, when the book fair rush increases in the evening, traffic restriction will be imposed. Vehicles will then be allowed to move from the seven-point intersection to CIT Road and Darga Road. Traffic from CIT Road will have to take Darga Road to reach Park Circus.

The police have also decided to ban vehicles from entering Orient Row, a narrow lane to the south of Park Circus maidan. This road will be exclusively reserved for pedestrians to access the book fair ground.

Traffic restrictions will be imposed on all roads around the maidan during book fair hours. While cars for student pickups will be allowed on Darga Road till school gets over, the entire area will be turned into a no-parking zone after 2.30 pm.

The cell will exclusively deal with public grievances against any police personnel of Kolkata Police or any police station under its jurisdiction.

To improve its direct interaction with the masses, senior police officers holding the rank of joint commissioners and divisional commissioners will do the rounds of local police stations under their jurisdiction. The official website of Kolkata Police will announce the specific dates and time on which the officers are to visit local police stations. Notice boards will also be put up at police stations announcing the same.

"Now people can directly interact with these senior police officers at the local police stations instead of going all the way to Lalbazar," said Commissioner Goutam Mohon Chakraborti. To seek redressal via the cell, people will have to first lodge a complaint at the local police station. If that does not help, the complainant can directly lodge a complaint before the AC or inform the cell via a letter or email.

"We will, however, not entertain any anonymous or pseudonymous complaints. A `whistleblower' who is unwilling to disclose his identity on specific ground may lodge the complaint directly before the Commissioner of Police or the Assistant Commissioner of Police (1). Depending on the gravity of the complaint, it will be forwarded to the relevant officer or the public grievance cell," said Chakraborti.

But no civil disputes will be entertained. The cell will function under an assistant commissioner of police within the ambit of direct supervision of the Additional Commissioner of Police (1) who is also the de facto Chief Vigilance Officer of Kolkata Police.