Markat Nagar police station. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, March 30: Community policing will be implemented here from April 1 to reach out to people and seek their help in maintaining law and order.

The project, as part of a statewide campaign, will begin from Markat Nagar police limits for the first time.

The police launched an awareness drive to sensitise local residents of CDA Colony on this during a camp organised at Sector-IX on March 25 evening.

“Community policing will be launched from Cuttack for the first time in the state from April 1,” said deputy commissioner of police S. Praveen Kumar.

Kumar said the Markat Nagar police jurisdiction would be divided into eight separate beats and a constable (beat officer) would be in charge of each beat consisting of nearly 800 households in various sectors of CDA.

The officers will establish direct contact with senior citizens, youths and other members of the locality to facilitate mutual co-operation to prevent crimes. “The constables will visit the households everyday and an assistant sub-inspector rank officer will supervise all the eight beats for better monitoring,” he said.

Senior police officials said the decision to start the community policing system from Markat Nagar would play a crucial role in checking crime.

Apart from this, a lot of floating population has settled at the satellite township developed by the Cuttack Development Authority in 2001. As a result, many people still don’t know their neighbours.

“We welcome the decision of the state government to start community policing from Markat Nagar as the social network system here has not yet been explored,” said Subhrakant Das, a resident of CDA Sector-XI.

However, many residents have doubts over the success of the new initiative because only eight constables have been roped in for the project.

“The entire CDA has been divided into various sectors while there is only one police station at Markat Nagar. We have been asking for three to four police outposts at prominent locations, but our demands are yet to be fulfilled,” said Kailash Moharana, another resident. “At least 16 constables should be deployed to successfully carry out community policing,” he said.