Crimes against senior citizens on the rise

Lucknow, Nov 19: The murder of three elderly persons in the Uttar Pradesh capital two days ago has once again brought to the fore the lack of security for senior citizens.

Despite numerous strategies by the state police to protect the elderly, on November 17, three elderly persons, including a couple, were murdered here. Robbery is believed to be the reason behind the crimes.

In the first incident, R S Dwivedi and his wife Chandra Kala were killed at their Papra Mau village residence in Chinhat area.

The assailants used a sharp-edged weapon in the crime, the motive of which is said to be robbery.

In another incident, Kala Chaudhury (64) was found murdered at her Ghazipur residence. Rs 1,500 and some jewellery was found missing, police added. The incident took place soon after Ms Chaudhury's husband left for his routine morning walk.

While top police officials, including the director general of police (DGP) himself and the successive Lucknow police chiefs have devised strategies to stop such crimes, their implementation at the police station level is missing.

Former Lucknow SSP Rajiv Ranjan Verma was first to prepare a strategy, especially for the security of the senior citizens.

In-charge of the police stations were asked to assign each and every beat constable and sub-inspector to identify elderly persons staying alone in their respective areas. The stress was to visit the old people at regular interval and inquire about their well-being.

Verma's idea was to send a signal to criminals that the elderly were constantly under the protection of police.

The in-charge of police stations were asked to ensure that their subordinates did not take the exercise lightly.

The circular was sent to all the police stations and the senior officials concerned. The practice was followed for some time but the police's enthusiasm fizzled out.

Similar circulars about regular visits to senior citizens by the local police were issued by the DGP too.

Yet another exercise by the police, which remained confined to paperwork, was rigorous patrolling during morning hours. The practice was deemed essential to avoid incidents of kidnapping, attempt on life and also ''petty crimes'' such as eve-teasing and chain snatching.

Former SSP Ashutosh Pandey had even deputed a deputy SP rank officer as Circle Officer (CO) Morning Walk. The CO was assigned the job to monitor the patrolling duty.

UNI