Cheating, nuisance and land grabbing issues top the list

If you are a victim of ragging in colleges or eve-teasing in public places, seeking police assistance is just a few clicks away. The newly redesigned website of the Tamil Nadu police “www.tnpolice.gov.in” provides a variety of options, links and interactive avenues for the people to get connected with law-enforcing agencies.

Statistics reveal that the trend of lodging police complaints online has picked up, though more in the urban pockets, and the grievances voiced online involve serious offences such as land grabbing, criminal intimidation and harassment for dowry.

As part of an e-governance initiative in police administration, the website was redesigned, making it more user-friendly. Applications seeking police licence for guns, gymnasiums, internet browsing centres, private security agencies, among others, can be freely downloaded from the website. A women's helpline link provides details of 24/7 helpline contact numbers, All-Woman Police Stations located across the State and the circumstances under which victims can seek police assistance.

While providing exclusive links for ragging and land-grabbing complaints, the website has an ‘online complaint' link that leads to a complaint format. Users can select the respective city/district to lodge their complaints. Since every complaint is acknowledged, investigated and the action taken report sent to the aggrieved person, the facility has evoked good response in the recent months, police sources said.

State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) statistics reveal that 6,178 police complaints were registered online from across the State in 2011. Of these, reply was sent to 6,081 complaints. Chennai topped the list with 2,920 complaints. While Tirunelveli recorded the least number of online grievances among cities with 44 complaints, Perambalur was among the districts with just 19 complaints.

“Unless the offence is grave like rape, murder, attempt to murder, we would encourage the public to lodge complaints online. It saves their time as well. We want to make it clear that the action taken on online petitions is the same as that on petitions received in person at police stations,” a senior police official said. Additional Director General of Police and Director of SCRB Ashish Bengra says every city/district has a web cell that receives online complaints and forwards it to the authorities concerned for appropriate action. “Since senior police officials have access to the complaints, they send reminders when there is delay in concerned police taking action on the petition. Many pass on vital information to the police,” he said.

In coordination with the railway police, the website provides a link to ‘missing persons' and ‘unclaimed bodies' along with their photographs. There is also an online ‘knowledge library' and ‘publications' link that lead to information useful to researchers and academicians, police sources added.