Agartala : Tripura witnessed a substantial 18 percent reduction in overall crime, including crime against women, during the past one year, it was announced on Sunday.
“During April-March 2014-15, altogether 5,347 crimes of different nature have been registered with police as against 6,537 crimes during the like period of the preceding fiscal,” Tripura Police said in a statement.
It said: “During this period, the total crime in Tripura declined by 18 percent, which is a record in the history of Tripura Police.”
The statement said the crime rates declined as police have taken several measures for improving general law and order situation in the state that shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh and a 53-km border with Assam and 109 kms with Mizoram.
The measures include strengthening of police and other security forces by improving their efficiency, increasing the number of police stations, regular police-public interaction under the “Prayaas” community policing programme and developing police intelligence networks.
The statement said crimes against women also declined by 15 percent.
During the period under review, 1,516 crimes against women, including rape, molestation and dowry-related harassment, were reported as against 1,785 such crimes during the same period of the previous year.
“The Tripura government has so far set up five all-women police stations and exclusive women’s desks in all the 71 police stations in the state to deal with crimes against women,” a police official said.
All-women police stations would be set up in all the eight districts of the state, he added.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who holds the home portfolio, said the state government would increase the number of women police personnel in the force to almost one-third of the total strength.
“Currently, 13 percent of the total police constables and 10 percent of the total police force are women. Our government’s target is to raise the percentage to at least 30 percent,” Sarkar has said.
Director General of Tripura Police K. Nagaraj said crimes against women and road traffic accidents were major concerns for the police and needed to be curbed.
“Tripura Police has been making sincere efforts to spread awareness through the community policing programme ‘Prayaas’. The participation of general public in ‘Prayaas’ meetings has shown a positive impact on reduction of crime,” he said in a separate statement.
The DGP said that while Tripura Police has become a model for police forces all India for dealing with counter-insurgency, it was hoped that Tripura Police would become a model for crime management and maintenance of law and order as well.
In January 2012, Tripura Police received the “President’s Colours” — the fourth police force in India to receive the honour — for their performance in tackling crime and the decades-old terrorism.