Kathmandu, July 14:

Police officials claimed today that the mobility of police personnel has increased in the Kathmandu Valley since the induction of Control Room Vehicles (CRVs). The increased mobility has helped the police curb criminal activities, they said.

SP at the Metropolitan Police Control Room, Gyanod Raj Vaidhya, said increased mobility of police personnel has helped police control criminal activities. Vaidhya claimed that incidents of daylight thefts, hooliganism, snatching, pickpocketing and cases of hit and run have gone down dramatically after the introduction of the Metropolitan Police Structure in the Valley. He, however, could not furnish data to prove his claim. Vaidhya said the police had been reaching the incident sites within five to 10 minutes for a few months.

Dibas Udas, DSP at the Metropolitan Police Circle, Baneshwor, said that police arrested two persons while they were looting a house owned by Bidur Sapkota at Bhimsengola two weeks ago. He attributed the arrest to the immediate response on the part of the CRV. Incidents of on-the-spot arrests have increased in the Valley due to the 24-hour service provided by CRV staffers.

“Incidents do take place sometimes, but it’s not reasonable to blame police for them. Whether police response is quick or not is the major issue,” Udas said when he was asked to clarify why the police could not catch the killer of Balram Patuwa. Patuwa was killed a week ago. He was shot dead on the road along the Dhobikhola corridor just a minute after a CRV whizzed past.

Basudev Hemangju, a senior fire-fighter at the Juddha Barun Yantra, said that Control Room Vehicles have increased police’s mobility. “These days, we see police personnel reaching the spots before we reach there,” he said.

According to Vaidhya, 72 control room vehicles have been mobilised in the Valley round the clock, accompanied by 893 police personnel. “Every CRV has four to six personnel on duty and the CRV duty is managed in three shifts,” he said.

According to him, the control room has recently installed Closed-Circuit Television in 11 places of Kathmandu.