The Palghar police have come up with a novel idea to keep an eye on the city, with the help of citizens. As part of the unique police-public partnership initiative, the cops are integrating the old with the new — constables will patrol around societies, shops, banks, hotels, petrol pumps, etc, while all these premises and establishments have been requested to put up at least one CCTV focused on the street, in a bid to capture any wrongdoing or untoward incident and help the police in detecting it. The initiative, titled 'one eye for the city', is the brain child of Additional Superintendent of Police Vijaykant Sagar. It has been implemented on a pilot basis in the Vasai division of the Palghar police, which has seven police stations under it.

The trigger
House break-ins have been rife in the area, where most of the residents are office-goers, who stay there for the low property prices. Such thefts are particularly a worry during festivals, when most people head out to enjoy the vacations. Other crimes, namely chain-snatching, molestation and eve-teasing, are a menace too. Sagar said, "It's been a month since we started this project, and we have received a good response from people. "Seven police stations fall in my jurisdiction, and I have asked the senior inspector from each one to tell respective personnel to visit societies, hotels, malls and cinema houses, and explain our project to the people and convince them to be a part of it."