Community policing at Mararikulam!

I fully agree with Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.s comment that community participation is important to combat the growing threat of terrorism and ensuring law and order in the state.In fact, police displaying friendly temperament and compassion towards public is a dream of the society. Nevertheless, one cannot see any kind of community policing or empathy from the police at Mararikulam when the Presiding officer , with magisterial power, of booth number one of ward number ten of Mararikulam North Panchayat was brutally assaulted by local goons. The assaulted woman’s oral deposition alone is necessary to arrest the culprits, but the police was playing hide and seek all the time to rescue the perpetrators. Has the Election Commission no responsibility to protect the poll officials who are under attack from criminals?

If this is the approach of authority to ensure law and order the State it would take another decade to accomplish the concept of community policing. Law enforcers turning into mute spectators or law offenders are the blight of the present time.

K A Solaman
The New Indian Express, 6 Nov 2010