Village Police Officers Deployed In Over 4,000 Gram Panchayats In Telangana 

Hyderabad: Telangana Police deployed Village Police Officers in 4,137 gram panchayats spread across 12 districts of the state, who will look after maintenance of peace and prevention of crime in villages.

The Village Police Officer, of the rank of Police Constable/Head Constable/Assistant Sub-Inspector will be present in the villages and will sit in this office at least three days in a week, an official release said on Saturday. An office consisting a table, a chair along with the name plate of police officer along with his mobile number have been set up in the panchayat offices in these revenue villages, it said.

According to the release, Village Police Officers would now ensure access to public. "In the earlier system for every small or big matter, the people especially from rural villages had to travel to the Mandal headquarters. With the Village Police Officer, the access to police would be within reach to all people irrespective of socio-economic status," it added.

In the present system, the centre of the policing system is the Station House Officer with constables and head constables assisting him. Now each constable would have a jurisdiction of own and this would give respect to him, the release said.

Village Police Officer will also result in better policing as the policemen/ women would be stationed in the village itself enabling improvement in various aspects of policing directly, it said.

To ensure that the system works properly, the Sub-Inspector would, at regular intervals interact and take a feedback on functioning of Village Police Officer, it added. With the reorganisation of districts (formation of 21 new districts), the accessibility of Superintendent of Police has increased. Thus, any lacuna/ complaints against the Village Police Officer can be brought to the notice of the SP immediately, the release said.