Minor offences tie up Pune police: Meera Borwankar

The increase in the number of non-cognizable cases in the city is a big obstruction for the police to concentrate on cognizable offences, according to police commissioner, Meeran Borwankar.

She was interacting with members of the Nagrik Chetna Manch, a city NGO, at Poona Club on Monday.

Nagrik Chetna Manch president, Major General (retd) SCN Jatar, senior member Colonel (retd) BF Chowdhry, secretary general BD Sharma and other members were present.

“People visit police stations seeking police intervention to settle non-cognizable cases. Such cases can be easily resolved by the parties among themselves. We have to concentrate on cognizable
offences,” she said.
Borwankar said the city police are working to train constables into leaders to bridge the gap between the common people and the police. “Constables interact with people and are in constant touch with them. We are organising leadership training programmes for our police constables, including English speaking lessons,” she added.
According to her, the city police have taken up three initiatives to improve the quality of policing. Every police station has a study circle where experts interact with the police staff to enhance their knowledge in various subjects.
In another initiative, called Chowky Renovation, the residents and the local police discuss issues of that area and try to resolve them. “Moreover, a number of students are doing internship with the city police. This is enabling the youngsters to mingle with the police and understand how they work,” she said.
During the interaction with the audience, the police commissioner was bombarded with questions on traffic problems plaguing the city. “We are doing our best to tackle the problems and also taking help from NGOs to solve it,”
Borwankar said.
When asked about chain snatching incidents, she said, “We keep changing our strategy and have solved many cases.”