Aftermath of serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, the police in the Karnataka have decided to strengthen human intelligence network with public help.
Senior police officers from the State who held series of meeting with Union Home Ministry officials for the past two weeks, informed about their plan to strengthen the intelligence gathering network by roping public.
Home Guards and Civil Defence along with Bangalore city police and NGOs would launch massive campaign to encourage public to help police to get information about suspicious persons or object or anti social elements, Director General of Police and Commandant Home Guards and Civil Defence Jija Hari Singh told Deccan Herald here.
The Civil Defence Wing in the police department is planning to enroll one lakh volunteer by end of this year in Bangalore city alone and impart training to them about how they can help the police.
“We want to encourage auto drivers, road side mechanics, hawkers, hotel employees to join hands with police as informers for they will be trained” Jija Hari Singh said.
Though the Civil Defence Wing already has 11,000 enrolled members at present, we wanted to revive the list as many of them might have transferred to different cities.
Pilot basis
On a pilot basis, the police will launch a campaign in Bangalore city and later same will be extended to other cities also.
Janaagraha, Bangalore based NGO led by Ramesh Ramanathan had already approached the Civil Defence offering his help in the new initiative to enroll more number of people.
Janaagraha which is pioneer in promoting people’s participation in governance has also mooted citizen policing. We held few rounds of talks with Janaagraha and prepare a road map soon, Singh said.
After completion of enrolment of people, who will voluntarily come forward to help police, we will train them about how to act during crises. Meetings of various residential welfare associations and non governmental organisations would be convened, she said.
We are aiming mainly to develop strong bond between lower rung policemen like beat constables and citizens in this initiative, she said.
