CHENNAI: Creation of a database of petitioners’ complaints to help the police brass monitor their status is in the pipeline following the merger of the city and suburban police commissionerates. Also, the anti-dowry cell has roped in 27 qualified counsellors from registered non-government organisations to tackle domestic disputes.The new initiatives came after Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s formal announcement of the unification on the floor of the House on August 24. Hundreds of complaints not only from residents of the city, but also from the suburbs are now expected to flood the police commissioner’s office in Egmore. It remains to be seen whether the present grievance redressal mechanism is adequately equipped to register, monitor and solve them effectively.A day after the unification, there were 45 complainants from the city and only 12 from the suburbs to meet the CoP. “The news of the merger had not yet percolated to petitioners in the suburban areas and so the number was low,” a senior police official told Express.On Day Two, the numbers showed a slight increase with 25 out of the 75 petitioners from the suburbs.On Monday, long queues could be seen at the reception office to get passes to meet the police commissioner between noon and 1.30 pm and submit the petitions. The grievance hall was ‘houseful’ with 124 petitioners, with those from the suburban areas now outnumbering their counterparts from the city. And it was a long session for CoP J K Tripathy, who has started meeting the petitioners in the hall due to their growing numbers.Dismissing claims that the unification had caused inconvenience to people in the suburban areas, Tripathy told Express that the joint commissioners of the north, south, west and the newly created east zones would move out of the commissionerate and have their offices in their respective jurisdictions. “The JCPs will be posted at North Beach (north), Anna Nagar (west), St Thomas Mount (south) and Egmore Commissionerate (east),” he said. “This will enable them to effectively address the grievances of the public.”Also, the assistant police commissioners of the various districts to whom the complaints were directed to would upload them on the Internet. This would create a large database, which the top police brass, including the CoP, would be able to access and conduct enquiries about the status of the petitions. “The entire process will be streamlined, so that the status of the petitions can be checked and inquired into,” Tripathy said. Since about 10 per cent of the complaints were on domestic disputes, 27 new, qualified counsellors had been roped in from registered NGOs for the nine police ranges, ACP (anti-dowry cell) C Shyamaladevi said.The volunteers, would help the police in tackling complaints filed by aggrieved husbands and wives and elderly citizens, she said.
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