January 05, 2008	Saturday	Zilhaj 25, 1428

KARACHI, Jan 4: The city government has entered into an agreement with the Airport Security Force to get its recently-established community police force trained at a cost of around Rs5 million.

The three-month training programme for the first 50-strong batch of the community police will begin on Monday at the ASF Academy here.

EDO (Municipal Services) Masood Alam told Dawn that the ASF would train some 1,500 personnel of the community police and Rs1.65 million would be spent on the training of each batch, if it comprised 50 personnel. Around Rs34,000 would be spent on the training of each person.

The city government has so far recruited some 600 personnel for the community police and it will soon hire 900 more. The concept behind the community police is to implement and enforce municipal rules in the city and to impose fines on violators of such rules.

Mr Alam said the ASF would give training to the community police personnel in five areas, including physical fitness, how to interact with citizens, on municipal laws and action against violations, traffic management and how to protect municipal installations.

He said the city government selected the ASF for training as it was a well-organised force in the country. He said that before taking the final decision, the city government also considered the Police Training Centre, Saeedabad, and other organisations.

The EDO said the number of personnel would be increased in other batches so that all the 600 personnel could complete their training by the end of this year.

He said the city government had procured 20 mobile vans for the community police, and they would patrol 19 traffic corridors to help the citizens by taking measures for a smooth flow of traffic.Meanwhile, City Nazim Mustafa Kamal met the first batch of the community police.

According to a press release, he said the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO-2001) allowed the city government to establish the community policing department.

Referring to the recent disorder in the city following the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he said the absence of community police was felt badly and the city could have been saved to a great extent from the recent damage if a contingent of community police had been present on the roads.