Mangaluru: Duty of the police largely depends on their communication- with the grieving complainants and with the accused.

The knowledge of the local language is a must for the police personnel. Considering the fact that there are several policemen who do not know the local language and furthermore, they are never given an opportunity to learn the local language in a systematic way, the programme of training policemen from other places in Tulu language started at Police Commissioner’s office on Thursday.

The ten-day long course has been started for 22 policemen-ie two from one station to begin with. The programme has been started in collaboration with Mangaluru University. Though there are other languages too which are spoken in the region, Tulu has been widely accepted as the regional language. Since it is used by people from all the communities, training policemen in Tulu has been taken up.

Mangaluru University Tulu Diploma Course Convener Dr Yathish is co-ordinating the course while Dr Vishwanath Badikana and Dr Kishore Kumar Sheni are teaching the language to the policemen. The course of the present batch will conclude on June 22.

Speaking about the same Mangalore Police Commissioner said that about 30 per cent of the Commissionerate staff are from other places. “Since tulu is widely spoken language, we have decided to impart basic language skills to the staff who cannot converse in Tulu. However, we also have plans to introduce Beary course in future,” he said.