Locked homes on watch in Vellore, nearby districts

Helplines in place to help residents inform about their travel

With an extension in Pongal holidays for nearly a week, police in Vellore, Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai and Tirupattur have intensified their surveillance on locked houses in the districts, with special patrol teams, making at least five trips to these houses during night hours every day.

Going a step further, the Tiruvannamalai police have pasted stickers with helpline numbers – 9988576666; 04175-220220)– in over 20,000 houses, covering major towns in the district, including Arani, Chengam, Cheyyar, Polur, Vandavasi and Tiruvannamalai town since Thursday, to encourage residents for alerting their nearest police station about their out of station travel. These stickers were pasted on the main doors of these houses to enable residents to notice them when they leave for holidays.

“Most of the time, travellers forget to alert local policemen about their travel as they are busy packing at the last minute. So, we decided to paste stickers at the entrance door of their houses,” Tiruvannamalai SP A. Pavan Kumar Reddy, told The Hindu.