K. Sokkalinagam. —Photo: P. Goutham

K. Sokkalingam has assumed charge as the city’s Police Commissioner here on Monday. Prior to that, he held various positions including SP, State Human Rights Commission.

Mr. Sokkalingam, belonging to Theni district, after taking over charge told the media here that he would give priority to law and order. “I will ensure a peaceful life for the citizens in the city,” he said and added that he would take steps to regulate the chaotic traffic.

He said that he would form City Vigilance Committees ward-wise with public participation to monitor the crimes and assist the police on duty in respective wards. The committees would comprise of 30 to 40 members with clean background. They would be trained in public-police relationship and also serve as a bridge between the two. The chain snatchers would be dealt severely and a comprehensive plan would be chalked out to deal with the crime.

Public could inform him of any ‘katta panchayats’ and also asked the public to cooperate with him in his endeavours to make the city a peaceful one.

His mobile number is 8056025815. Later, he held a meeting with senior officials and inspectors.

Source: The Hindu

A plastic recycling unit functioning in a residential locality here was destroyed in a major fire on Sunday.

Fire and Rescue Service personnel brought the fire under control after a marathon 6-hour battle. The unit was functioning at Vel Nagar near Seelanaickenpatti.

The residents of Vel Nagar noticed black smoke emanating from the factory premises and informed the Fire Service Station at Salem Sevvapet. But before they could reach the spot, the fire engulfed the entire premises.

After a six-hour battle, the fire was brought under control.

A senior officer said the cause of the fire was yet to be identified.

Source: THE HINDU

Security has been stepped up in Salem and Namakkal districts in view of the Babri Masjid demolition anniversary on December 6.

The number of mobile patrols has been increased and temporary check posts have been erected at various points.

Special security has been provided at places of public gatherings such as bus stands and places of worship.

Railway police in coordination with railway employees have mounted round-the-clock patrolling of the tracks.

Metal detectors have been erected to screen the rail passengers. Armed security personnel have been posted to maintain security at all vital installations at various places in the districts.

Industries including Thermal Power Station at Mettur have been given extra protection. Stanley Reservoir also has been given additional protection.

“Mobile patrolling will be on move from 5 p.m. on Sunday,” said a senior police official who also added that a special drive to screen odd-time motorists also would be taken up after 10 p.m.

Any suspicious movement of anyone should be brought to the notice of the police immediately, the public have been told.

Source: THE HINDU

The order issued by Salem DIG and Commissioner of Police (in charge) G. Venkataraman prohibits assemblies, meetings, processions, agitations, demonstrations etc., without prior permission inside the urban limits.

Source: THE HINDU

Thieves and anti-socials beware. The City Police have turned technology savvy to tackle the menace of pocket-pickers, bag lifters and eve teasers in the crowded Bazaar streets of the city as Deepavali festival is fast nearing.

Spy cameras have been fixed at vantage points to track them.

Trade centres

The important trade centres in the city – Old Bus stand, First and Second Agraharams and Bazaar streets – will be abuzz with festival activities as almost all the leading textile and jewellery shops have been located in these places.

The evenings will become all the more crowded with hundreds from surrounding villages and towns would gather here to buy things for Deepavali.

The crowd, business and flow of money would also woo many nimble-fingered to get mingled before whisking away the valuables.

Hence, the City Police have decided to install eight Surveillance Speed Dome Cameras at important junctions where the people would assemble for purchase.

Control room

These cameras would pan the activities that take place in about 4 square km of the area enabling the policemen on duty to watch everything that happens outside on the streets and roads on the screen from a control room.

Anyone who loiters suspiciously would immediately be nabbed.

The police in control room would inform their counterparts on the field through wireless communication. The entire happenings would also be recorded.

Vehicles, which flout traffic rules, also will be booked. Deputy Commissioners of Police S. Baskaran and Ravindran operated the cameras on Wednesday.

Source: THE HINDU

The incident took place when policemen were preparing for the Ayutha Puja celebrations in which arms and ammunition would be readied for worship, a ritual that is carried out every year on the occasion of Ayutha Puja.

A group barged into the Police station after pushing the guard on duty Rathnam.

They also vandalised the rifles, wireless sets, tables and chairs in the station before breaking the pictures of gods and goddesses and defiling the puja materials.

On hearing about the vandalism inside the police station, special teams from neighbouring police stations rushed to the spot and within an hour, secured 4 persons including the PDK district president Martin, treasurer Govindaraj and two cadres in connection with the incident.

All the four had been produced before the magistrate in Mettur and remanded to custody in Salem Central Prison.

Meanwhile a group of PDK cadre tried to picket the police station late in the night.

However additional reinforcements were rushed and the situation was brought under control.

Mettur Revenue Divisional Officer Velu, DSP Sivanandam and other senior officials visited the station.

Source: The HIndu

The order issued by IG and Commissioner of Police Sunil Kumar Singh prohibits assemblies, meetings, processions, agitations, demonstrations etc., without prior permission inside the urban limits.

However, there will be no regulation on festivals, processions of religious importance, marriages and mourning.

- Special Correspondent

Source: THE HINDU

Priest of the temple Mani said the kalasam was intact till Saturday night when he left after conducting rituals associated with the Tamil month of Puratasi. The priest, who came to open the temple on Sunday, found the kalasam missing.

Following information, the Mallur police conducted an investigation. A case has been booked and a search has been launched. No clues have been gathered so far in connection with the theft. According to police, the missing kalasam was worth around `1 lakh.

Source: expressbuzz

Source: THE HINDU

‘Uneasy claim’:Police Commissioner Sunil Kumar Singh (left) and DIG G. Venkataraman looking at the candidate who tried to cheat on his height at selection of Grade II constable in Salem on Monday. —

To gain that much-needed extra centimetre of height so that he could qualify for the selection of Grade II constable in Tamil Nadu Police Service, a 24-year-old youth from a village near here was caught with a coconut shell glued to his head covering with a wig here on Monday.

An alert Police Inspector, who was in charge of the measuring the height of the candidates whose physical details such as weight, chest and height got measured and certificates verified, as a part of the State-wide recruitment exercise for Grade II Police constables, Prison warders and Fire Service personnel, found an ‘uneasy’ head that got covered with rich black hair when the candidate K. Anandan of Muthunaickenpatti village in Omalur block stood at the scales.

He, belonging to MBC, had measured up to 171 cm – a prerequisite for physical qualification. But when the Inspector probed his head, to his surprise he found a halved coconut shell pasted on his head and covered with a wig he bought from Chennai. But for this improvised attachment, Anandan, 10 {+t} {+h} class pass, could have been measured a mere 168 cm that would automatically disqualify him.

A case under Section 420 of IPC (cheating) was registered against him. Officials claimed that his diehard craze for a police job landed him in prison today. “On two earlier occasions he had failed to cross the bar of height at the measurement table,” said a senior police officer.

About 3,500 candidates from Salem and Namakakl districts got their certificates verified after undergoing physical verification.

Source: The HIndu