Gadget scheme for senior citizens

The brutal attack on a senior citizen couple that left the wife dead on Thursday night has shaken the Commissionerate Police. The police on Saturday ordered chalking out a Security Gadgets Scheme to be circulated among the Senior Citizens’ Cells in the City.

After a meeting with a federation of senior citizens, Police Commissioner Sunil Roy asked an ACP to prepare the scheme and submit it for circulation within a fortnight. The scheme will include the necessary gadgets that the elderly could use in their homes to prevent any untoward incident. Use of CCTVs, retro-reflective safety device cat’s eye, concertina wire and latches will feature in the scheme. Concertina wire or Dannert Wire is a type of barbed wire or razor wire that is formed in large coils which can be expanded like a concertina. Latch is a type of door or window fastener.

A delegation of Federation of All Odisha Senior Citizens’ Associations met Roy and expressed concern over the incident. “Such an attack and murder in the Capital is unprecedented,” Krupasindhu Sahu, president of the body, said. The senior citizens’ body requested the Police Commissioner to expand the number of Senior Citizens’ Cells from 10 in Bhubaneswar Urban Police District. There should be cells under all police stations so that they can cover senior citizens, who are living alone, in the entire City. Roy promised to submit a proposal to the State Government to strengthen the cells by creating manpower.

The federation also complained that nodal officers in the cells are not effective as they fail to stay in contact with the registered senior citizens on a regular basis. Instead of registering just those who are living without their children, all the senior citizens must be enrolled, it added. It also called for devising an awareness campaign for the ageing and the elderly on how to take adequate safety measures in their homes.

“Such issues were not there five to 10 years back. We read about such attacks taking place in Delhi from newspapers. People must be made aware of it,” Sahu said. The federation has also pledged its support to the cause in the regions where it is operational.