THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city police has requested for a mini-control room, more vehicles and additional hands at Kazhakoottam to manage cyber city areas that have been brought under city police jurisdiction recently. There was a full-fledged mini-control room when technopark area was under rural police. However, once the city police took over this, it became non-existent.
A total of 14 city control room vehicles that reach every nook and corner of the city, theoretically give more protection to people in city compared to rural areas where men from local police stations are the first respondents. “We have asked for three-four more vehicles which can be used in Technopark. The third phase will bring 20,000 new people to the area. Now, there is striker team at technopark to meet emergency situations,” a top official said. The traffic cases and accidents are still attended by local police station as the short-staffed city traffic police do not have an arm long enough to control the area.
“It will be hard for our staffers from Pattom side to attend to cases in Kazhakoottam. Apart from this, our staff strength has not been increased since 1996. So we have no plans in bringing the area under (North) Traffic,” the official added. As per city police commissioner Sparjan Kumar, the area still has the characteristics of a rural area which tend to have higher crime rate. “Things will slowly fall into place and yes we have requested for more resources there,” he said.
