Police commissionerate for M'lore

MANGALORE, Oct 21, 2008 ((file photo, news: mangalorean)

With this burgeoning coastal city now being branded for its communally sensitive nature and terror related activities the government is thinking of having a police commissionerate for the city. Which is a welcome development, the city had been on the list for receiving a police commissionerate for more than a decade. The first proposal was made after the communal riots in 1998 and subsequently there have been demands from the local people to strengthen the police force if it meant to have a commissionerate of police at Mangalore
Former Inspector General of Police Western Range Suresh Babu who had studied the need for this facility told Mangalorean.Com at Bangalore that Mangalore had become a hub of growth and was going to become a busy international aviation hub and an international maritime centre following the Mangalore Port developing into a major export-import centre.
Home minister Dr.V.S. Acharya who made an announcement at Hubli yesterday that Mangalore City was included in the list of four other cities which are to receive police commissionerates, that Mangalore should be given priority as the city is going to be a mini metro and more and more people from different places of the country are going to come here. To a question posed by the Mangalorean.com at a press conference recently in Bangalore, Dr.Acharya said the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. was poised to make huge investments in the proposed coastal Special Economic Zone here, these conditions make Mangalore an ideal choice for having a police commissionerate.
The Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao recalled that when he was the principal secretary to the Chief Minister and Home affairs he had been directed by the Chief Minister to send a proposal. The then superintendent of Police B. Dayananda had prepared the report, which is now being reviewed by the home ministry under the new context.
According to the preliminary inputs the new commissioner whenever takes charge at Mangalore will be assisted by at least two Deputy Commissioners - one for the urban areas and another for the rural areas. The jurisdiction of the commissionerate will be much more than the present jurisdiction under the city area. It might stretch upto Ullal in the south, Moodbidri in the East, Surathkal in the North. The other districts that required upgradation were Belgaum, Gulbarga and Davangere. Belgaum was next in the list as it has been identified as the next important urban agglomeration of the State after Bangalore.
As per the recommendations of the National Police Commission, every city with a population of 10 lakh should be upgraded to the status of a Police Commissionerate that would obviously ensure a higher degree of policing. A Police Commissioner is also a District Magistrate and can opt for clamping prohibitory and shoot-at-sight orders among other powers. Dr. Acharya and state minister for parliamentary affairs and law S. Suresh Kumar had apprised the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil during his visit to Bangalore.
According to home ministry sources there are also plans to start an Armed Training School at Kudremukh for police and a KSRP battalion in Hassan. Training School in Kudremukh should come at the earliest as there is dearth of space to train the freshers at Mangalore. “The existing training centre is overcrowded and candidates are being sent to different districts for training,” he said and added that opening the School will help impart training to all the candidates at one particular point in the same time