Maithri meeting held

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajpal Meena has said that senior citizens’ cell which was announced by Commissioner Manoj Abraham at the  Maithri meeting in last July will become  operational in a couple of days. He was addressing the Maithri meeting which was held at Nandavanam Police camp in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. The meeting, which was intended to develop a proper understanding between the police and the public, was attended by representatives of 60 residents’ associations in the city. The actions taken on complaints registered by representatives of various residents’ associations during the last Maithri meeting convened by City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham were also explained at the meeting.The nearly two-hour meeting saw a flood of complaints from the residents’ associations. Most of the grievances were targeted at various government departments like KSRTC, PWD and Water Authority. The inefficiency shown by the Corporation in dealing with garbage disposal was mentioned by representatives.P Sukumaran, convener of grievance cell, Federation of Residents’ Associations in Trivandrum (FRAT), said that crimes are on the increase in the areas which come under the Peroorkada and Mannanthala police stations. Theft and goonda activities are continuing unabated in these areas, he said.  Representatives of Theeram Residents’ Association of Cheriyathura informed the Deputy Commissioner about the burgeoning sales of narcotics in the Cheriyathura area.He also suspected that criminals from adjacent coastal areas are operating in the area disguised as trade union activists.Attendees from the city residents’ associations were swift in registering their complaints regarding illegal parking in the public places, traffic congestion, shortage of drinking water and the dilapidated state of the roads.A complaint registered by the representative of Sreedevi Nagar, Karamana, caught the police officers off-guard when she mentioned that the road inside AR camp should be repaired along with the other roads in the city that are in the state of dereliction. The rugged road inside the camp has been lying unattended by authorities for quite a while. Deputy Commissioner Ramesh Babu and Assistant Commissioner M Radhakrishnan were also present.