With a large number of people migrating to Saurashtra from Varachha, Katargam, Punagam and Kapodara, the police have instructed housing society presidents and secretaries how to take precautions to check incidents of theft in their areas. With public partnership, the police would also patrol the societies day and night during diwali.

Majority of the people staying in Varachha, Kapodara, Punagam and Katargam areas, who are associated with the diamond and embroidery industries, go back to their native places in Saurashtra on Diwali. This gives miscreants an opportunity to strike homes thus left empty.

Hence, the Surat police have taken an initiative and have started conducting meetings in two phases. The first phase meetings has been completed in Varachha, Kapodara, Katargam and Punagam, where housing society heads gathered in a private hall and were tutored by a police inspector on how to be more cautious and precautions to be taken before leaving home.

Over 100 people comprising of presidents and secretaries of 35 different housing societies participated in the meeting in Kapodara on Tuesday. Inspector S J Tirmiji told them not to keep valuable items like cash and jewellery in the house and instead deposit them in bank lockers. He also proposed to select five members from the society and give their names to the nearby police chowky. These five volunteers would keep watch over the society and immediately inform the police about any unusual activity that they spot.

Tirmiji said: “We don’t want the people to be tensed when away from home. Taking lessons from the past, we have come up with an innovative idea to ensure public partnership. We have selected five members of each society to patrol their respective colonies. We will be in constant touch with them. The police will also do night patrolling in these societies with them.”

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