Director General of Police T.K. Rajendran has issued a memorandum restricting mobile phone usage for policemen below the rank of sub-inspector, while on law and order duty, VVIP bandobust, temple and festival bandobust across the state.
In the memorandum, the DGP pointed out that police personnel deployed on important bandobust duties frequently used cell phones for monitoring online message sharing platforms. This, according to him, distracts them from discharging official duties, particularly at sensitive and critical times.
The police chief has directed all the unit officers to decide on the time and places where the usage of cell phones is to be controlled or not to be carried along, according to the situation. This is supposed to be incorporated in the bandobust plan itself.
Meanwhile, police personnel feel that this would be very difficult to control. “Now many messages are passed through mobile phones rather than walki-talkie, the official communication mode,” said a police constable.