Mysuru: “The aim and objective of every human activity should be to make this world a better place to live” said Dr. M A Saleem, Commissioner of Police.
He was speaking at an interaction with the students of Mass Communications and Journalism, at the Mysore University. He said “maturity is important for any journalist in the selection of news and giving prominence to the news. For any journalist a positive approach to issues will be a good idea in order to maintain harmony in society because negative incidents around may also make a person tend to commit crime”.
Later he answered questions posed by the students on various issues happening in the country.
In response to a question related to traffic rules, crime and women safety in the city, he said “violation of traffic rules can be controlled only by self-discipline and strict laws like in the western and middle eastern countries. India is a country where a major transformation of society happens each and every day and people commute from the village to city areas on a daily basis. They, who do not know the rules will tend to break the rules, but things are changing according to time, and the public are gradually following the rules. Control crime and violation of traffic rules can achieved be by lodging more complaints which makes public fear to break the rules. The number deaths have decreased to 94 in 2014 compared to 140+ last year.
He was of the opinion that, Mysuru traffic is far better than Bengaluru because traffic depends on density of population, and where Mysuru has only 12.5 lacs, Bengaluru has 1.2 crore, so implementing a message service regarding traffic and other services to the commuters will be a good idea after 4-5 years.
“The objective is to make women come forward and lodge a complaint in the police station which has been achieved to some extent and harassers should be punished in order to control the harassments in the city and country as well”, he averred.
When asked about why there is only one women’s Police station in Mysore city, Saleem opined that having more women’s Police stations, will not control women harassment cases, whereas a city like Bengaluru has only two, so crime depends on the density of the city as well.
He asked the public to use services like Chamundi women’s helpline and complaint box . He said “they are doing good service in controlling the harassments in the Mysore city. The Police’s job is to punish criminals not to change the criminals. Criminals should be punished, which will be a lesson to others and that may create fear and they may avoid them to commit crime”.
He admitted that Police security failed to protect IAS officer Rashmi Mahesh on the day of attack. He said however, that the investigation report once submitted to the government, will form the basis of action.
Saleem also touched upon the crime at ATM’s. He said, strict action has already been taken against Banks who have not implemented the CCTV and security person in the ATM mandatory requirements. He said, that so far robbery cases have been registered in Mysuru.
On the sensitive subject of police behavior with the public, Saleem said, “ the rude nature of police men is because of a historical reason – the British called it as a Police Force, whose main objective was to control and create some sort of fear in the people. That attitude has continued till date. However, things are changing in the police and an effort has been made to change the context of the Police force to Police service. This effort which has been going on for the last 20 to 25 years, needs time becasuse change takes time in every field.
He also reiterated the importance of people police partnership. “People should have friendly interaction with the police and support from all citizens may help police to control the crime and violation of traffic rules in the city and in the country as well. People should trust police and keep them informed about the arrival of unknown people to the city”. He added, “ People should come forward and give their suggestions and opinions on the service to the police and for this a platform has been provided to the public on the 3rd Saturday of every month”.
Answering a question on corruption and safety of foreigners, he said “ foreigners should come forward and lodge a complaint or inform the police if harassment or if they feel that they are being mislead in issues so that police can help them in resolving their queries and apprehensions”.
“Corruption is a universal problem that can be removed only by the social change in the society” he added. Elaborating, he said, “Leakage of question papers of police exams and corruption in the selection process is one of the drawbacks which will be rectified in coming days. The selection process like physical fitness and written exams will be recorded on video for transparency “.
He said that now a days, social media is better in reaching and educating people, so the police is using more technology based communication tools like the Facebook. “The police have created Facebook pages which carry news about Mysuru crime and other information but the response from the public is average compared to Bengaluru where citizens are more active”.
He believes that, social media and police should work and help each other for the betterment of Society through the dissemination of good and correct information and not rumors.
Niranjan Vanalli, HOD, MCJ, Dr. MS Sapna, and Prof. Usha Rani were also present at the interaction.
