Krishnagiri: Initiative to bridge cops-public gap

Krishnagiri: M.M. Selvaragavan, an officer in Kelamangalam police station in Krishnagiri district seeks to bridge the gap between his department and the general public.

To enable this, a new concept has been introduced in his police station for people to approach them not only for crimes, but also for other issues like education, health, livelihood or civic problems.

"At the time when the distance between the police and public gets wider, our men work to build good relationship with the people by their work which extends beyond our routine," says Ms. D. Sangeetha.

Ms. Sangeetha, DSP for Denkanikottai police division, added: “We have many stories of our good work in reducing the crime rate and also our support to the community like the case of Onnukuruki villagers.”

"Onnukuruki villagers had resorted to road roko, a few days ago, against not getting drinking water. The protest was withdrawn after our policemen had talks with the protesting mob," the DSP said.

Ms. Sangeetha continued: "we not only stopped with that, water was transported to the village in tanker lorries and our service to them continued till the panchayat took over the work."

Another case worth mentioning is about the livelihood concern of the Kelamangalam police related to one K. Kunchamma of Kouthalam village in Denkannikottai taluk.

The 58-year-old woman survived from the small income by selling cow's milk after her poor children, were unable to take care of the lady because Kunchamma was not interested to move out of her native village.

However, misfortune again struck her life in the form of the cow's death, the only source of income for her two-member family including her husband Krishnappa (68).

"Death of my cow has made me think 'is there God'; I later changed my stand because of the police officer (M.M. Selvaragavan) who was sent by God to be my son. He gifted me a cow worth Rs 40,000 for my survival," Kunchamma said.

According to SI Selvaragavan, policemen who work with him contributed a part of their salary for social work. He also receives moral support from the district SP and the divisional DSP. Help from outsiders is accepted only after checking their background, he added.