Nirbhaya Keralam pilot project to be implemented in Ekm

, May 31: The "

Keralam Surakshita Keralam" project, which was launched by Congress President Sonia Gandhi in February this year, will be implemented in Ernakulam district within a month, state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala today said.

The pilot project for Ernakulam had been approved by the state government earlier. To start with, the project, which aims at making women feel secure in the state, will first take off at Kochi Corporation and will later be extended to Ernakulam and other districts, Chennithala told reporters here.

It will be implemented with the help of women volunteers in the age group of 22-50, who will be given uniforms. A three-member committee with District Collector M G Rajamanickam, Kochi Police Commissioner, K G James and ADGP R Sreelekha, the nodal officer of the project, will select volunteers in each ward who would be then be trained.

At least 900 volunteers would be needed for the district. A "Nirbhaya" portal, which will have surveillance cameras at various points, "Nirbhaya Zone" at Infopark, Kochi and "Nirbhaya transportation" to help women travel safely in secure environment have also been planned, he said. To strengthen police intervention in crimes against women, 89 all-women police stations would be set up.

The 'Vanitha' station here would be upgraded as district police station and will be fully manned by women. Sixty women SIs and 500 women civil police officers would be recruited. The aim is to increase women intake into state police by 10 per cent by 2015, he said.

The Vanitha stations at Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode would also be made into all women police stations, he added. On Maoist threat in some districts, Chennithala said the government was vigilant about the matter and elite police team "Thunderbolt" was monitoring the situation. The fact that workers from Bangladesh were coming to Kerala in search of jobs was serious matter, he said.

Labour department, Police and Intelligence officials had held a meeting recently to discuss the matter, he said. On recent instance of orphanages in the state bringing about 500-odd children from other states to Kerala, he said this was being done in the name of social service. If social service is the aim, then they should do that by going to the states from where the children had been brought as the children were being put to great difficulties, he said.

A special meeting of police officers will be called against the backdrop of the recent attack on a scribe by an autorickshaw driver, the minister added.

PTI