In AI Age, Cops Take to Dandora to Alert People

Hyderabad: In the days of smartphones and artificial intelligence, the police have decided to use the centuries-old public announcement model, beating the dandora, to alert the residents of villages in the Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district on precautions to be taken to prevent chain-snatching.

The move comes in the wake of a spate of incidents of chain-snatching in the villages; In 12 days, a gang snatched the gold chains of more than seven women who were sleeping outside their houses during the hot summer nights.

After the random snatchings from April 7 to April 14, the residents of 421 villages approached the police to help them out.

The gang, which is still at large, targeted remote villages that lacked power supply and CCTV cameras and that are far away from the police station.

“Our prime focus is to prevent further snatchings and provide safety and security to the villagers,” said M. Rajesh Chandra, DCP of Yadadri district.

“We tried out the decades-old tradition of `dandora` to communicate with the locals. We got a very good response from the villagers who were terrified by the incidents,” he said.

Police noticed that the gangs struck only at night. “Initially, we conducted checks across the district, and agriculture areas isolated villages only during nights,” he said.

On April 16 night, the DCP directed the local police officer to organise awareness campaigns at night, beating the dandora to draw the attention of the locals. “Dongalu vastunnaru, byata padukovadam kudaradu, intlo oadukovali (Beware! Robbers are on the prowl. Don’t sleep outside the home, sleep only in the house),” the police teams announced.

During the day, several autorickshaws equipped with loudspeakers were deployed to relay the message.

However, the DCP posted police personnel dressed in civil dress in each group and intensified patrolling in the identified villages. The officers were directed to be alert 24/7 till the gang is arrested and the situation in the villages retains normalcy.

Thanks to the awareness programme, police said the villages have not reported even a single incident of chain-snatching from April 7 till April 18. “A special thanks to the police who are working 24/7 for ordinary people like us,” G. Mangamma, an elderly woman from Dilaverpally village, Yadadri district, said.