Pindi police chalk out plan to curb street crime

Traffic licence branch to be upgraded with more counters

RAWALPINDI: With the holy month of Ramazan about to start, the Rawalpindi Police have devised a plan to curtail street crimes during the month.

As part of the plan, police will map areas with frequent reports of street crimes and deploy police teams in different parts of these areas, especially in and around markets.

Police sources stated that Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Abbas Ahsan has devised a strategy to curtail street crimes in Ramazan since it has emerged that street crime incidents have soared during the holy month over the past few years.

As part of his plan, the CPO has directed the Rawalpindi Investigation SSP Mohammad Faisal, and Operation SSP Syed Ali Akbar to identify those police stations which whose jurisdiction the most street crimes take place to deploy additional police officers.

The measure is being taken to make it difficult for robbers to either access an area or to flee from an area after committing a crime.

Police officials have been further instructed to make stringent security arrangements during Ramazan. For this purpose, both police officials have completed mapping of areas at the police station level in all three divisions of the district including Rawal, Potohar and Saddar.

A senior police official told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that precincts which receive the most reports of street crimes are Newtown, Sadiqabad, Cantonment, Airport and other police stations.

He added that these areas have been demarcated after which police, along with officials of the Dolphin and Muhafiz forces will be deployed in these shift-wise until Eidul Fitr.

The police official expressed that such measures would aid in providing a safe and secure environment for the public during Ramazan.

Upgrading licence branch

In a bid to smoothen things for citizens, the Rawalpindi Traffic Police (CTP) Headquarters and License Branches will be upgraded. For this purpose, renovation work on the respective buildings has begun.

As part of the upgrade, the number of counters in the licence branch will be extended to eight while automated queue slip machines will also be installed.

Further, a mobile application, under a joint venture of the traffic police and university students — “Bharosa Rawalpindi CTP” (Trust Rawalpindi CTP) — is being developed. In the final stages of completion, the mobile application will enable the citizens to obtain timely information regarding traffic congestion across the city.

Further, it will be equipped with all essential information related to the pre-requisites for obtaining a driving licence either afresh or renewing an old one.

It will also have a feature whereby users can book appointments for licence related work. It will also help citizens plan their activities keeping in view the weather condition in the upcoming days.

Not only this, the CTP will install special cabins for wardens along all the main arteries of the city and cantonment. This will help provide officers with some respite from the elements while they manually control traffic using hand signals.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Rawalpindi Chief Traffic Officer Muhammad Bin Ashraf said that as part of their up-gradation programme, the police will make separate counters for women and senior citizens at the licence branch.

Moreover, the ambience of the waiting area will also be improved, making it more people-friendly, he said.

Apart from other features, citizens will be able to fill and upload forms through the application. This will enable them to save precious time of citizens, he said.

“The application will be launched soon,” Ashraf promised.

Talking about the cabin facility, he said the first of many cabins had been set up at the TM Shaheed Chowk intersection.

Ashraf said that further steps will be taken to help improve the performance of traffic police officers apart from easing things for citizens.

He further urged citizens to refer to their social media pages to get all essential and timely information regarding traffic and road safety in the city apart from the latest laws and regulations.

The CTO said that the citizens could also give their feedback and recommendations regarding friendly policing on the platform.

Ashraf said that they were in the middle of a campaign to make road users aware of traffic laws and safety measures through the distribution of pamphlets and holding multimedia lectures in schools and colleges.

He urged road users to follow traffic rules for a safe travelling experience.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2019.