Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee instructed police on Wednesday to keep strict vigilance in such areas of the city where elderly couples resided alone.
She said criminals were are trying to usurp properties of senior citizens taking advantage of their frail health and solitude.
Talking about the recent murder of an elderly couple in Netaji Nagar, she ordered the police to take necessary steps so that no one can grab the land of the deceased couple.
Following Banerjee's instruction, Kolkata Police on Wednesday
prepared a plan to gather the
details about elderly couples in the city, who live alone or stay
alone at home for hours when their family members go for work.
Several constables will be engaged to gather information.
From time-to-time, these constables will report to the Officer-in-Charge (OC)s of the local police station.
Also, in every 15 days OCs and constable engaged in the work will meet the divisional Deputy Commissioner (DC)s and brief about their work. According to sources, after instruction from Chief Minister, Commissioner of Police (CP), Kolkata, Anuj Sharma told the senior officials to prepare a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which would be followed strictly for the elderly citizens.
As per the plan, police will go
door-to-door to gather information about senior citizens and their families to prepare a database.
Apart from preparing database, security audits will be conducted to check if their houses have CCTV cameras or whether their homes come under the range of CCTV cameras set up in their areas.
If necessary, police will arrange for CCTV cameras in the vicinity and may also install alarm system for those elderly citizens, who are physically-challenged or partially physically-challenged.
These steps will help them to get in touch with the people in case of emergencies. Kolkata Police will also try to bring all the senior citizens under the banner of 'Pronam', a wing of Kolkata Police for elderly citizens.
The police have announced a round-the-clock helpline number — 9830088884 —for elderly citizens. The number is operational but was not circulated properly. Senior officials of Kolkata Police are mulling to connect this helpline number with 100 dial system to promptly respond to the calls of elderly people in distress.