Udupi: Good response was received by the first phone-in programme by the district police as complaints were received by Superintendent of Police Sanjeev M. Patil himself on 19th August, Saturday.
Issues ranging from gambling and overcharging by auto-rickshaw drivers to over speeding of buses and traffic problems were brought into the notice of police during the programme.
Mr. Patil said that the information gathered by him during the phone-in programme would be shared with the police stations concerned so that they could take action on it.
He also said that gambling and matka are menance, which cannot be tackled in just a day. But tough action would be taken to deal with it. A total of 134 cases against matka were registered in 2016, while 126 cases have been registered upto July this year.
He further said, “During the phone-in programme, some of the callers have given exact details of where the matka was going on and who were running it. Promising a caller of action, Mr. Patil said, he would himself visit the matka spots mentioned by the former coming under the Kota police station limits and take action.
In a span of just one hour from 10 am to 11 am, the SP's office at Bannanje received 27 calls from the public.
The SP further said, “The police department will work hard to improve the beat system and prevent illegal activities. The phone-in programme will be conducted every week on Saturday morning. The identities of callers will be kept strictly confidential. We have taken this initiative to make the police department people-friendly.”