Mumbai commissioner of police Satyapal Singh seems to have taken the issue of senior citizens' safety quite seriously.
Mumbai commissioner of police Satyapal Singh seems to have taken the issue of senior citizens' safety quite seriously.
In the last few days, 39,000 senior citizens have registered themselves with the Mumbai police. Of these, 4200 live alone.
Last week, the Mumbai Police had started a new initiative to ensure the safety for the elderly. This move came after six senior citizen murders were reported in the city in less than three months.
Under attack for his department’s failure to protect the elderly, state home minister Patil had proposed that every policeman will “adopt” one senior citizen in their respective jurisdiction.
As per the initiative, a roster will be provided to senior citizens in which they will maintain the records of visits made by policemen to their residences. This record will be checked by assistant commissioners and above rank officers once in a week to ascertain whether proper visits are being paid or not.
Earlier, the police used to maintain the records, which sources said, could have been fudged easily.
As part of this initiative, on Monday, Patil and Singh had visited 20 senior citizens, including 75-yar-old Shoiab Dholkawala, in Nagpada, who live alone.
Dholkawala has been living alone for the last eight years.
His only son stays in Dubai with his family and when he comes to the city he prefers to live in his flat at Mumbai Central and only visit his father.
“People are so busy that they do not have the time to look after their parents. There are several senior citizens who live alone. We [Patil and Singh] will try to visit them at least once in a month," said the home minister.
"Also, the constables from each police station would approach the senior citizens in their locality to ensure that they are safe and maintain a record of the same. I will also speak to the law and judiciary department and appeal that the accused in senior citizen murder cases be tried in the fast-track court,” he added.
Patil also spoke to the neighbours and other residents of the society. Patil and Singh requested them to take up responsibility of the “lonely elderly” in their area and ensure that they are safe.
While Singh stressed that safety of the elderly in the city is top on his priority list, he added that security during festivals is also important to him.
When pointed out that during this year's Ganeshotsav, the Mumbai police had only on concentrated on the security , and not curbing noise pollution, Singh said that if they receive complaint from any other department they would look into the matter.
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