Government yet to act on bifurcation plan

Government yet to act on bifurcation plan

The plan is to split the Bangalore police district into two, each headed by a Superintendent of Police

The Hindu

THE STATE Government is yet to take any action on the decision to bifurcate the unwieldy Bangalore police district. Though the plan to bifurcate it was conceived nearly a decade ago, successive governments had deferred a decision on that.

In November 2003, the Home Department finally cleared the proposal and the then Home Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the matter would be discussed in the next Cabinet meeting.

According to the cleared proposal, the Bangalore police district would be split into two, North and South districts, each headed by a Superintendent of Police. It was proposed to split the Bangalore police district as the existing one is not only too vast for a Superintendent of Police to supervise but also each of the taluks have peculiar law and order problems.

According to some IPS officers who had served in the Bangalore district and Central Range, the bifurcation is necessary as many major industries have come up in the district in the last few years thereby creating new problems.

Further, with the international airport coming up near Devanahalli, the burden on the Bangalore district police is likely to increase in the days to come, they feel.

Apart from the spin-off effects of industrialisation, Bangalore district police are also facing problems from a large number of resorts and clubs that have come up on the outskirts of the city.

A look at the composition of the Bangalore police district, which has five subdivisions and 38 police stations, reveals that each of the subdivisions has area-specific problems. Labour unrest, strikes and crimes resulting out of industrialisation have been the major issues the police in the industrial belt of Hoskote, Kadugodi, Anekal and Attibele have been dealing with.

While Channapatna and Ramanagaram are known to be communally sensitive areas, Magadi, Nelamangala and Doddaballapur are often in the news for clashes between the Dalits and caste Hindus. Political murders, kidnappings and group clashes are common in Hoskote. Large-scale illicit liquor brewing and sandalwood smuggling take place in Bylanarasapura, Medimallasandra, Shankinipura, Matamallasandra and Kattigehalli in Hoskote taluk. Nelamangala, Doddaballapur and Anekal taluks are dacoity-prone areas and need special attention by the police, officials say.

Supervising the police force in tackling these problems becomes difficult for the Superintendent of Police whose office is located in Bangalore, they say.