Students pitched in for safe New Year celebrations

Around 400 volunteers, mostly comprising college students along with members from the fishermen community, came together to support the Chennai police and ensured that unpleasant situations were avoided. 

The campaign that was spearheaded by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mylapore, V Balakrishnan, where volunteers were deployed to Mylapore, Triplicane, Alwarpet, TTK Road, Abhiramapuram and Santhome to help police deal with the surging crowds. 

“We were assisted by hundred students each from Vivekananda College, Anna University and New College on New Year’s Eve. We had spoken the Principals of these colleges and asked them to provide us with volunteers,” said DCP Balakrishnan, who adds that these students were briefed before they entered the field. 

“We briefed them on the basic do’s and don’ts. We advise them not to take any independent actions that will aggravate the situation. Their job was to only assist the police.” The police also briefed the member of the fishermen community to ensure that there were no incidents of drowning. 

“We had around 100 fishermen, who along with police patrolled the beaches and ensured that there were no mishaps.  No incidents of drowning were reported this New Year,” he says.  

“We organised signature campaigns to spared awareness on drunken driving at the start of December. We also organised seminars in colleges,” added Balakrishnan. After the success of this campaign, the police are now planning to engage more student volunteers for other mass celebration and functions.