Sharing info on criminals crucial for tricity

Nitin Jain

Better late than never! Thus can be summed up the much-awaited initiative taken by Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore to bring together Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana police heads for evolving a strategy to work in a coordinated manner to prevent and detect crime in the tricity region, comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula.

That criminals, both hardcore and those involved in street and petty crimes, take advantage of the jurisdictional issues to have a free run after striking at will in either of the three cities and taking shelter in the other two, is common knowledge.

When incidents of snatchings, robberies, especially armed car-jackings and crime against women seemed to run out of control in the tricity, especially Chandigarh, the Governor-cum-Administrator took  cognisance of the rising lawlessness and intervened to find ways and means of making the tricity safe and secure for residents.

Besides asking the three top cops to conduct inter-state coordination meetings at regular intervals for sharing vital inputs on various aspects of policing, Badnore also suggested a WhatsApp group of apex- level officers of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to facilitate and ensure speedy information sharing. This will surely help rein in the free run criminals now enjoy. They would now find it difficult to take advantage of territorial boundaries to make good their escape.

Further, a tricity police group may be formed by including SSP-rank officers of all three cities to carry out daily monitoring of the law-and-order situation in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula in a coordinated and joint exercise.

Without getting involved in the blame game, this group can and must ensure that the three cities remain safe and secure for the residents. In the event of any crime taking place in any part of the tricity region, the group may immediately swing into action to carry out joint raids and investigations. Besides sharing secret information and leads/ inputs on a daily basis, it may also devise a mechanism to interrogate criminals and investigate crime in any part of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula.

This may go a long way in making the tricity a safe and secure region to live in.