President to deliver valedictory address

Chennai, Jan 3 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam will deliver the valedictory address at the 150th year celebrations of the Chennai Metropolitan Police here on January five, which would be inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi tomorrow.

The President would attend the function by around 2015 hrs and leave for Delhi by an special IAF aircraft, after completing a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu.

The Metropolitan police, established in 1856, currently has 157 police stations, 35 all-women police Stations and nine outposts.

An area of 894 sqkm of the city and suburb with a population of 7.8 million come under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan police.

Ever since its inception, the city police commissionerate is housed in a colonial bungalow here built in 1852 in an area of 271 acre.

The city police stations were constructed as per the Indo-Saracenic style.

Police sources said the first City Police Commissioner J C Boulderson took charge on April 25, 1856. While Mr Parangusam Naidu was the only Indian to occupy the post of City Police Commissioner during the British rule in 1919, Ms Letika Saran, the present Police Commissioner was the first woman to occupy the high post.

The Chennai city police evolved from traditional policing namely the 'Kaval'organisation, the sources said in the second half of the 17th century, adding the city police's jurisdiction was expanded from time to time by annexing revenue villages in the adjoining Chengalpattu district as the complexity of urbanisation and crime pattern began to exceed.

Though the head of the Chennai city police was placed at the cadre of Superintendent of Police in 1780, the present nomenclature of Commissioner of Police came into existence in 1856.

The previous AIADMK regime had merged 32 police stations falling under Chengalpattu East and Tiruvallur districts with the Chennai Police Commissionerate in February 2005, the sources said and claimed that the efficiency of the city police lay in the patrolling systems, which was the most developed one in the country.

Every police station was provided with a car or a jeep to attend to distress calls with speed and dexterity. The city police also had a modern control room equipped with sophisticated equipment besides emergency numbers and several helplines.

It also obtained ISO certification, which was indicative of the international standard that the city police was reaching out to the public, the sources added.

UNI