Snatching cases on the rise, bizmen meet police

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, March 4

On Thursday, the day when SSP (Rural) Swarandeep Singh, along with key police officials, visited the Dhogri Industrial Park in Jalandhar, in view of repeated complaints of thefts and snatchings in the area, a labour from Deepak Industries was robbed in the very same complex.

Amid emboldened thieves and repeated snatching incidents for the past six month, industrialists of the Jalandhar Chamber of Industries and Commerce had a meeting with key police officials at a community hall on Pathankot Road to put an end to late night targetting of their workforce by thieves and gangs.

During the meeting today, provision of police booths — funded by industrialists — with a permanent deputation of policemen was proposed as a solution to the problem.

The meeting comes within a fortnight of a similar meeting of the Focal Point Industrialists with the Police Commissioner of Jalandhar over repeated thefts. The issue of thefts and robberies at the industrial complexes were also taken up during AAP leader Raghav Chadha’s meeting with industrialists in Jalandhar a few days ago.

Fed up of thefts and snatchings in their areas, the industrialists have reached out to the police to help curb the crimes. Dhogri Industrial Park industrialists said for the past about six months, a snatching incident was being reported almost every third or fourth day. Mobile phones and money were being snatched from labourers at intersections and streets. Lately, the gangs have also adopted more gruesome means.

At the meeting, Adampur DSP Sarabjit Rai, Adampur SHO Sikander Singh and Maqsuda SHO Manjit Singh came in to discuss the snatching incidents happening in the night hours. The Deputy Superintendent of Police suggested provision of two fabricated police posts with permanent deployment of personnel for the safety of industrial labor. He also suggested providing proper streetlights and installing CCTV cameras in sensitive areas. Industrialists present there, ensured to bear the cost of these arrangements.

Jalandhar Chamber of Industries and Commerce general secretary Charanjit Singh Maingi said: “The thefts have been taking place for the past six months; the intensity has only increased recently. Thousands of labourers work in the complex and almost every second or third night theft incidents began to be reported. Recently, men on an autorickshaw, picked up labourers on the pretext of ferrying them and then two passengers would place a knife on their throat. Labourers have been robbed of mobile phones and whatever money they had. We had taken up the issue with AAP MP Raghav Chadha a few days ago. After that, on Thursday the Senior Superintendent of Police with senior officials visited the area. Today the provision of two booths has been decided upon. This is a welcome decision and would help in boosting morale of our workforce. These snatchings need to stop.”

Other industrialists present today included, Deepak Aggarwal, Jatin Shoor, Vinod Gupta, Rakesh Gupta, Harsh Arora, Ashwani Aggrwal, VK Midha, Arvind Abrol among others.

There are about 30 huge industrial establishments based at the Dhogri Industrial Park, each of which has a workfoce ranging from 150 to 500. The thefts, industrialists said, were scaring the workers.

Focus on better patrol, surveillance: DSP

Adampur DSP Sarabjit Rai on Saturday said: “Various issues, which we were earlier unaware of, came to the fore in today’s meeting. We are committed to curbing the incidents of snatching in the area. We plan meetings every 15 days to stay well versed with the issues of industrialists. Some areas which were ignored due to the jurisdiction of two police stations will also get better patrol and surveillance. We are working on nabbing the gangs or thieves soon.”