Crime against senior citizens rise, separate crime wing likely
KOLKATA: The crime graph against the elderly residents on the southern fringes of the city - the area which came under Kolkata Police's jurisdiction almost five months ago - is on a steady rise. has led several residents and groups working for the senior citizens to question whether the change has worked towards controlling crime in the area.
The latest robbery attempt in Haridevpur at the residence of a senior citizen - Pratima Guha Sarkar - is the sixth such attack on senior citizens in the city this year. The other incidents were reported from Kasba, East Jadavpur, Thakurpukur and Parnasree - most of which are in the added areas. "We had thought that the murder at Phulbagan last year was a one-off case. But the robbery attempts on senior citizens continued unabated even after most of these cases were cracked. And worse is the involvement of different gangs in these incidents. This shows criminals are finding the elderly people as easy target,'' said a senior police officer.
Though, police complain that the senior citizens do not get themselves registered, there are reasons behind this. "A significant section of any city's population - including Kolkata - is the elderly people, but only a small number of senior citizens have got themselves registered with the police. And even after this paper work, the cops don't bother to visit them. Considering this, the rise in number of attacks should not come as a surprise," said a spokesperson of Help Age India in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, the cops are planning to set up a separate wing of detective department for these added areas is still to see some ground action. Apart from a separate crime wing, the officers are also looking for an independent control room for better mobilization of force. Though the idea was hatched several months back, the implementation is yet to begin.
The NGOs now say that they will make representations before the police to run a "specific'' sensitization programme in these added areas. "Very few senior citizens know that they can register with the Kolkata Police senior citizen programme - Pranam. Even those, who know about it, do not know that it has an office near the Ballygunge police station. But mere registration will not serve the purpose, unless the cops visit them,'' said Rishikant from another NGO.
After taking over the areas, which was earlier known as south industrial zone under South 24-Paraganas district police, Kolkata Police divided it into 17 police stations. Earlier, there were only nine police stations. Even after setting up eight more police stations, the average area under each police station in this expanded area is more than the jurisdiction of a single police station in the city proper.
V.RAGHAVENDRA RAO,
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