Kerala: Police commissionerate demand up

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The recent  government decision to bring Technopark main campus and nearby areas under the  city police limits could add weight to the long-pending demand for a police commissionerate.

Though the cabinet in  January 2013 had decided to introduce the police commissionerate system in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi cities, it was not  implemented allegedly due to strong objections  by a section of IAS officers.

Though concerns over handing over magisterial powers to IPS officers was said to be the basis of their  objection, the reason they used to cite was that the cities do not have 10-lakh population, a norm for granting the  commissionerate.

With Technopark, where close to 50,000 persons are working, and the adjoining areas coming under the  city police limits, the population would go up by over a lakh. Hence the police now have a better chance to once again press the demand for a commissionerate in the state capital.

“Even earlier,  we had a population of nearly 14 lakh in the city police limits, which has now gone up to around 15.5 lakh. Hence it is high time that the  commissionerate is sanctioned in Thiurvananthapuram,”  IG Thiruvananthapuram-range Manoj Abraham said.

City Police Commissisoner H. Venkatesh also said that the commissionerate system would give more powers to the police which would help in better policing.

Meanwhile, additional chief secretary Nalini Netto said that the matter was not being considered by the government for  the last many months.