Coimbatore: Crimes in violation of the Special and Local Laws (SLL) in Coimbatore have skyrocketed by 60% in the last two years, according to a statistics released recently by the National Crime Records Bureau. Also, the rate of SLL crimes has gone up from 205.3 to 325.1 per lakh of the city's population.
Special and Local Laws are Acts that are framed by the state government for specific issues. For instance, the law prohibiting the sale of lottery sales is a Special Act pertinent to the state of Tamil Nadu. According to the NCRB statistics released by the union ministry of home affairs last week, the city saw 4,417 cases booked under violations of Special Local Laws in 2014. This was increased to 6,069 in 2015 and to 6,989 in 2016 - a 58% jump in two years.
While the city emerges as crime-free in many of the crime heads listed in the NCRB data, crimes under Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act (liquor) alone accounts for one-third of the total SLL crimes. In 2014, 866 out of the 4,417 cases were booked under this Act and, this jumped to 2,679 cases in 2015 and to 2,675 in 2016.
The major reasons for this phenomenon are the pressure on the Tamil Nadu government to close down the state government-run liquor stores - TASMAC, and the city police's tough stand on the violators.
The 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections saw almost all political parties vouching for closing down the state-run liquor outlets after people protested against its operations. There is a popular anger against the state-run liquor outlets; especially from women because their men are splurging money on alcohol leaving their families in disarray.
On the other hand the city police is said to have formed a special team to crackdown on offenders indulging in such cases. "We have formed a separate team and also instructed all the police stations to tighten the noose on the violators. However, such crimes are sporadic. We cannot eradicate them in a few days or months," said the deputy commissioner of police, law and order, S Lakshmi.
Another officer, who has cracked some cases, said some of the criminals were repeated offenders as the punishment for such crimes is a small fine and the offence is bailable. "I feel that such offenders should be given severe punishment. Only then we will be able to contain such crimes. At the same time, we should continue to catch offenders and provide awareness," said the officer.
While crimes under prohibition of liquor have shot up, crimes under the Gambling Act, Lotteries Act and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act have dropped since last year. "There is no pattern here. In terms of drugs, the number of cases was almost the same in 2014. It shot up in 2015 because more peddlers were caught selling marijuana in the city that time," an officer said.
Since Coimbatore borders with Kerala, the supply of lottery tickets to the city is high. "But, the police have been vigilant and this has helped bringing the number of such cases down," another officer said.
Special and Local Laws are Acts that are framed by the state government for specific issues. For instance, the law prohibiting the sale of lottery sales is a Special Act pertinent to the state of Tamil Nadu. According to the NCRB statistics released by the union ministry of home affairs last week, the city saw 4,417 cases booked under violations of Special Local Laws in 2014. This was increased to 6,069 in 2015 and to 6,989 in 2016 - a 58% jump in two years.
While the city emerges as crime-free in many of the crime heads listed in the NCRB data, crimes under Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act (liquor) alone accounts for one-third of the total SLL crimes. In 2014, 866 out of the 4,417 cases were booked under this Act and, this jumped to 2,679 cases in 2015 and to 2,675 in 2016.
The major reasons for this phenomenon are the pressure on the Tamil Nadu government to close down the state government-run liquor stores - TASMAC, and the city police's tough stand on the violators.
The 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections saw almost all political parties vouching for closing down the state-run liquor outlets after people protested against its operations. There is a popular anger against the state-run liquor outlets; especially from women because their men are splurging money on alcohol leaving their families in disarray.
On the other hand the city police is said to have formed a special team to crackdown on offenders indulging in such cases. "We have formed a separate team and also instructed all the police stations to tighten the noose on the violators. However, such crimes are sporadic. We cannot eradicate them in a few days or months," said the deputy commissioner of police, law and order, S Lakshmi.
Another officer, who has cracked some cases, said some of the criminals were repeated offenders as the punishment for such crimes is a small fine and the offence is bailable. "I feel that such offenders should be given severe punishment. Only then we will be able to contain such crimes. At the same time, we should continue to catch offenders and provide awareness," said the officer.
While crimes under prohibition of liquor have shot up, crimes under the Gambling Act, Lotteries Act and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act have dropped since last year. "There is no pattern here. In terms of drugs, the number of cases was almost the same in 2014. It shot up in 2015 because more peddlers were caught selling marijuana in the city that time," an officer said.
Since Coimbatore borders with Kerala, the supply of lottery tickets to the city is high. "But, the police have been vigilant and this has helped bringing the number of such cases down," another officer said.
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