Six Percent Decline In Crime Rate: AP DGP Gautam Sawang

VIJAYAWADA: The crime rate in the Andhra Pradesh state has come down by 6 per cent while 'Spandana', the grievances forum was functioning very well and Disha Act has been a historical step taken by the State Government.

Talking to media here on Sunday, DGP Goutham Sawang said the Disha Act was path-breaking while implementation of zero FIR and other measures would go a long way in maintaining law and order.

He said that the Chief Minister’s brainchild ‘Spandana’ has shown effective results and of the 55,121 petitions filed so far with Home Department, through Spandana, only 5 percent cases were pending.

He mentioned that the Zero FIR registration system in every police station is being implemented stringently and effectively. These would show more fruitful results with the speedy investigation.

‘No other state police department has received seven National awards and we are proud of our achievements,’ he said.

‘The crime rate has come down by 6 per cent compared with last year. Our crime rate is 216 per one lakh population against the national average of 237 per one lakh population,’ he said ‘If the cases registered during elections were excluded the decreased crime could be 10 percent.’

‘The significant aspect that was achieved from the past six months was women safety issues and initiatives taken up as per the instructions of the state government,’ he said.

He said that including a woman police officer as a part of the village secretariat system; Village and Ward Samarkshana Samithi was a significant step. He lauded the government for taking such a gender-sensitive step.

The weekly off for the police was a significant welfare step taken up by the government. ‘Andhra Pradesh was the first state to take such initiation in the country and termed the move as historical. This contributes to better delivery of the police services,’ he said.

The police department has conducted Operation Dolphin Nose and Operation Muskaan which were remarkable achievements. Operation Muskaan has rescued 5738 children. The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has saved 46 lives in different situations.

DGP said ‘The Chief Minister during the review meeting said that even a single life matter and that would give happiness if a life is saved.’

He said that the professional efficiency and competence of the state police department was 88 percent, the highest for any state in the country. He mentioned that the rate of rapes in the state was 2.09 percent against the national average of 5.2 percent. The road accidents are the concerned area and we are going to work on this by using technology efficiently to address the issue.

‘Murder and grievous hurt cases have come down but small rioting cases have increased and that was also because of riots during the elections,’ he added.

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