Police play key restoration role in North

L.S. Ananda Wedaarachchi

A comprehensive restoration network is being implemented with the Police playing a major role in the government's rehabilitation in the North in bringing back life to normalcy under the directive of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Inspector General of Police Jayantha Wickramaratne said.

Firstly, maintaining law and order would pave the way for establishing basic living conditions for the Tamil civilians in the liberated Wanni areas like health, water, electricity road development, IGP Wickramaratne stressed in an exclusive interview.

Accordingly, seven police stations in Madu, Illupkadavai, Vidathtaltivu, Omante, Puliyankulam, Silavatura and Mulinkavil had been set up to restore peace and order in the Wanni liberated areas, he said.

Supplying basic human needs to the residents of the Wanni liberated areas would be given top priority. Public workers will be able to work for the benefit of the people without fear under police protection when the police network in the area gets into place, the IGP said.

He said that more police stations facing the A9 and A32 roads will be set up in bringing resettled Tamil civilians to the mainstream of life where they could live without fear of crime and violence and in a peaceful environment in the liberated areas in Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya Districts which suffered for three decades under LTTE terrorism, he said.He said that demining activities to make the areas safe, would also go on.The police staff who were attached to these stations were conversant in Sinhala and Tamil which was compulsory for government officials, and that would be a facilitating factor-in-dealing with the population in those areas.

Police force had taken a new shape and a new image during the last few years under the direction of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to strengthen the security of the country. Around 21253 educated young personnel had been recruited to the police. At present, Sri Lanka had a young educated efficient police force due to the longsighted steps taken by the police under the direction of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, he said.

"The police was able to detect quickly the culprits of the recent child abductions and killings in Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Akmeemana due to the timely support given by the public. One of our targets was to establish public confidence and the intrigrity towards police which we had achieved successfully during the last few months.

The detection of Horton Place CTB bus bomb was another example of Public-Police good relationship and the growing confidence. Millions of rewards were given to public and was being continued for public information which was a vital cog in the wheel to eliminate crime, the IGP stressed.

He said that 37 police stations and police posts were set up in Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee Districts immediately after the liberation of the Eastern Province. At the beginning, the police staff was attached to those stations from the Southern province.

It affected the efficiency of the Police Department and was later corrected by recruiting new educated young hands to the Police Department.

There was a big demand to join the police. Without the help of newspapers or electronic media advertisements, last week 3,200 came for interviews in Colombo. 732 youth were recruited from Anuradhapura one week ago. The information regarding the interview was sent only by Civil Security Committees, he said.

"Systematic and scientific training is vital for efficiency and discipline of a department. Serious attention was given to the training aspect of the police.

Five Police Training centres in Kalutara, Elpitiya, Anuradhapura, Pahalagama, Mahiyanganaya, Nuwara-Eliya and Bomburelle, were conducting training programs. For the first time in Sri Lanka.

A Tamil medium Police Training College had been setup in Kathankudi in Batticaloa.

The training programs were being held there exclusively for the police officers recruited from the area, he said.

Police officers should feel the pulse of the people. Then only they can work with the masses building a cordial relationship.

Police training helps police to play an important role towards good public relations, he said.

Heading the 73,80, strong police force, IGP Wickramaratne said that the black marks of police related bribery and corruption was being eradicated from the police and a new image of an efficient, educated young police force had emerged during the last months.

This was purely because of the joining of a large number of educated youth to the various ranks of the police as well as the rigorous training they had undergone.

Discipline at the top had set an example down the line, he noted.