Chandigarh: We have zero tolerance for traffic violators, says IGP Neerja Voruvuru

It is 24 years now since I joined the police. I think it is a very satisfying job if you want to help people.

Mohali is arguably the fastest growing district in the region. What are the law and order challenges you face?

Yes, Mohali is a fast growing district as compared to others. We have a large population floating from neighbouring states that comes here in search of work. The housing societies and the high rise buildings provide a very good place for anonymity to criminals as well. There are criminals from Punjab, who tend to take refuge here.

Traffic enforcement in the city is a big issue. People say they remove the seat belts the moment they enter the city. How do you plan to tighten the screws?

We have zero tolerance in this aspect, and we have come down very heavily on traffic law violators in Mohali. I think more than half of drunken driving challans in Punjab were reported in Mohali district last year. We have detected more than 16,000 seat belt law violations from April 2018 to February 2019. From April 2018 to December 2018, we have handed out about 2,800 challans for drunken driving in Mohali. We are absolutely clear that we want to bring Mohali on a par with any other city in traffic enforcement.

Recently, the city police chief advised RWAs to employ guards in their sectors. Is it an admission of the police’s inability to tackle crime?

How can you claim that deploying security guards is an inability? See we don’t have adequate resources. You cannot expect police to be present in every street and society. We have been going for a very comprehensive security system for the district, which includes setting up of CCTV cameras by the community and police. We have been motivating people in every society, residential area, housing colonies, shops to set up CCTV cameras. Police have identified the highways, junctions and certain unsafe areas; we are setting up CCTV cameras for live surveillance. Already 75 cameras at 15 such locations have been installed and we have live streaming going to the control room. We are looking forward to setting up more 450 cameras at 100 more locations. The whole idea is to make Mohali safer for people.

As you have already mentioned that you have a large floating population of migrant workers and students. What kind of law and order challenges do they entail and what steps are you taking to keep a vigil on them?

We have been asking house owners to keep us informed of their tenants. There is a very clear procedure for tenant verification and the local police is in touch with RWAs and housing colonies to educate them. We have also been requesting RWAs to inform the police in case of any suspicious act by any tenant. We have the SAANJH portal for online tenant verification. It is a community police initiative and we have SAANJH kendras everywhere. Whenever people are unable to access the site online, they can visit the police station. We are encouraging RWAs and house owners to utilise this facility.

What about gangsters?

They are coming here because they get a place to stay. People must inform us about any suspicious activity.

We keep reading stories of police catching drug suppliers. Do you think we should also plug the demand? What are police doing in this regard?

We have a separate Special Task Force (STF) which is headed by an ADGP, who runs a holistic programme that looks into both enforcement and rehabilitation. The Drug Abuse Prevention Officers (DAPO) programme was started by the STF and district police is also a part of it. The civil administration and police personnel work as volunteers to motivate people in giving up the habit of drugs. We have always been very sympathetic to those who are willing to give up drug addiction.

Do you also get a large number of property-related cases due to the boom in construction sector ?

Yes, we get a lot of property disputes here but we are very clear on one thing; we intervene only when the case relates to any criminal action. There are so many other forums like civil courts and Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) that are looking into such disputes. We encourage them to take up these complaints. Whenever there is a dispute in which a criminal case needs to be registered, we take action only after an inquiry.

How are Mohali cops different from their peers in Chandigarh and Panchkula?

We always learn from the best practices of other places. We share the best practices. We have come down heavily on drunken driving, that is one of the practices we have learned from the Chandigarh Police.

Any message for the people?

We want cooperation from people in providing them better security. In fact, we have taken many initiatives to provide the best possible security to people. We want people to cooperate with us in setting up CCTV cameras in order to increase surveillance. Our city is safe, and people feel safe here.