Bidhannagar cops to strengthen night surveillance in Salt Lake

The Bidhananagar City Police have started maintaining strong late night surveillance at the entrance and exit gates of Salt Lake. The drive has been launched to make the township more secure when they pass through the gates during late hours.

The police have already started discussing security issues with the local residents. Meetings with the block committees have regularly been convened.

The police have advised local residential committees in the blocks to appoint night guards. It has been seen that most of the night guards are untrained and equipped with only a lathi, which is ineffective in restraining intruders and miscreants. The committees have been advised to bring well-trained, armed security guards from reputed agencies.

"Several houses have their personal security guards, but they are few in number. There are many houses in Salt Lake which are completely vacant. The caretakers, who live in the garage or ground floor, look after the entire property. Sometimes, burglars target those houses. We have advised these house owners stay secure," said a police officer. The city police have observed that many houses have families residing on the ground floor while the first floor remains empty. Cops consider this a major blunder as burglars generally take this opportunity to break into the house from the second floor. It was decided earlier that every block will get a dedicated police officer from the local police station.

The local block residents could contact the officer in case they face any problem. The Bidhannagar Commissionerate has also asked block associations to install CCTV cameras in the blocks, which could help in capturing evidence of criminal activities.

In a fresh initiative, the Bidhannagar Commissionerate decided to have the identity of domestic helps working in different houses of Salt Lake registered. Though the police had previously taken a similar initiative to register the names and original addresses of household maid servants, the database was old and needed to be updated.

Investigators of Bidhannagar Commissionerate recently also unearthed a burglars' racket, where five women, who had been working as domestic help in different households, were arrested. Investigators believe there are rackets involving domestic workers which provides information to the burglars. Police have been tracking these rackets for some months.

The police also learnt that there were several agencies, providing maid servants, are also involved in such rackets. The role of such agencies is now under the scanner.

"Most of these agencies take money from their clients in exchange of providing maid servants to households. However, some of these workers play the role of informers to the burglars. The agencies also receive money from such rackets," informed a police source.