MUMBAI, May 24: Residents may look upon their tight-fisted bank manager as a local bully, but hello, what's his name doing on a police helpline for information on the underworld?This unlikely candidate for the mafia and many others comprise the bulk of complaints on the `Alert Citizen' telephone helpline for tip-offs on gangsters launched by the Mumbai police two weeks ago. But to their dismay, the police find that Mumbaikars have been using it to draw their attention to just about anything.According to police officials, the number of people venturing information on gangsters has reduced even as the city's crime graph has steadily risen. ``Witnesses turning hostile fearing the criminals is a case in point,'' says ACP Vasant Gosavi, public relations officer, Mumbai Police. Under this scheme, which assures callers anonymity, callers can give a fictitious date of birth as identification. ``The idea was that the promise of anonymity would make more people come forward,'' says an inspector.However, out ofnearly 15 calls received every day, most relate to illegal constructions, gambling, prostitution rackets, black marketing of cinema tickets, or what the police call ``petty matters''. Gosavi gives the example of a man who called up to say that railway tickets were being sold on black on platform four at CST station. ``We sent a constable over to check out,'' he says. The cop however could not find any culprits.One of the main reasons for such calls, says Gosavi, was that people have not yet understood the reason behind this service. Low publicity could be another reason for public ignorance. ``But too much publicity is not good for the cause as it could make people over-enthusiastic,'' says P S Pasricha, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order).Meanwhile, the police cannot ignore these complaints as they could be detrimental to the new service. ``Though these were not the kind of calls we expected, we try to solve the problems,'' says the inspector in charge of the cell handling these complaints,who refused give his name. ``A 60-year-old lady called up asking our help in getting her cheque cleared. We have asked the concerned police station to look into the case,'' he adds. Dissuading such calls would reduce public confidence, he explains. ``If we cannot solve these simple problems, we cannot expect the public to trust us with more important things,'' adds Gosavi.But there is always the possibility of people misusing this facility to get even with their enemies. According to a police official, they have received quite a few complaints about gambling or prostitution rackets. ``But on investigation, it was found that the people were innocent,'' he added.Some complaints against gangsters and drug mafia were also received. However, they turned out to be false leads, said Gosavi. ``On receiving these calls, we put our men on alert and the area under suspicion was monitored. But nothing happened,'' says the inspector.However Pasricha is not perturbed by this. ``We had expected such responseinitially,'' he said. ``We now receive around 14 to 15 calls daily,'' he added.
