Vizag Rural police get top honour for innovative social-engineering initiatives

Visakhapatnam: The Vizag Rural police have been honoured with the prestigious SKOCH awards for two of initiatives – Prerana and i-SPARC. While Prerana is a tribal youth outreach programme, the other is a hi-tech project to step up security. ASP (Chinthapalli) S Sathish Kumar and DSP (Anakapalli) K Sravani received the award on November 29.

SKOCH awards, regarded as one of the highest independently instituted civilian honours in the country, salute individuals, highlight projects and applaud institutions that go the extra mile to make India a better nation.

Prerana aims at mainstreaming youngsters if they are influenced by Maoists and deviate them from the ganja (cannabis) mafia. It helps the youth broaden their vision, deepen skills and expose them to opportunities.

The tribal boys are sent to the Skill Development Institute, Arilova, Visakhapatnam, and Skill Development Institute, Vijayawada. The efforts help the cops improve their goodwill among the masses as well as contribute towards bringing about a socio-economic change.

Under the i-SPARC – Integrated Surveillance, Patrolling and Response Center – the cops monitor the movement of Blue Colts teams. Calls from Dial 100 are diverted to the response team for immediate action. All CCTV cameras installed in the town limits are being monitored from the i-SPARC centre.

The initiative focuses on crime prevention, law & order, traffic regulation, women & child safety and visible policing. It has so far been implemented in Anakapalli and Chodavaram and has been benefitting nearly 2.1 lakh people.

Since their institution in 2003, the SKOCH awards have become the only independent benchmark of best practices in India in the fields of governance, finance, banking, technology, corporate citizenship, economics and inclusive growth.