Police offer help, security to senior citizens

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
17 Jan 2011

Senior citizens can feel secure in the capital city hereafter as the city police are launching a scheme to ensure their security and welfare round the clock. It is in line with the Kerala Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules 2009 that the Thiruvananthapuram city police are offering a helping hand to senior citizens. City Police Commissioner M R Ajithkumar said that the groundwork for the new scheme was almost complete and it would be formally launched soon.
“The main aim of the project is to extend assistance to senior citizens who are staying alone. There are many such homes in the city. Moreover, there are also instances of children neglecting their aged parents. We hope to address such issues by introducing the Senior Citizen Security Scheme,” said the Police Commissioner.
As part of implementing the project, the city police have already collected the details of almost all the senior citizens in the city and created a data bank. A Community Service Centre (CSC) will be opened at the City Police Commissioner Office soon. An officer in the rank of sub-inspector will appointed as the Central Nodal Officer at the CSC. The CSC, which will function round the clock, will monitor the functioning of a Senior Citizen Security Scheme, as well as other community service schemes of the city police like community policing and women and children helpline.
A police officer in the rank of additional/assistant sub-inspector will be appointed in each police station as Community Relation Officer (CRO). Each CRO will be responsible for the security and welfare of the senior citizens under his police station limits. The CRO will have to be in touch with all the senior citizens in the locality frequently and enquire about their woes, if any, and take necessary measures to address them.
The city police will also launch a website soon. There will be facility for senior citizens to enroll themselves with the data bank of senior citizens being maintained by the city police. There will be a centralised data base of all senior citizens at the City Police Commissioner Office. Similarly, all CROs will have to maintain a data base of senior citizens under their police station limits.
The senior citizens can also take up their grievances or complaints with the police.
The Central Nodal Officer at the CSC will be monitoring the follow-up actions taken by the police on the complaints.
arjun_raghunath@expressbuzz.com