Mukkombu becomes a safer picnic spot

Mukkombu, a popular picnic spot situated a few km from the city, has been brought under enhanced vigil with the installation of surveillance cameras.

Static cameras have been fixed at vantage points to keep a close watch on the area. The cameras have been set up from the police general funds. The surveillance cameras are connected to a monitor put up inside a building situated at the spot where beat constables keep watch on them.

The entry and exit points at the picnic spot have been brought under the camera coverage to keep a tab on those entering and leaving the place. The cameras were commissioned on Friday.

A senior police officer said the cameras had been put up in the Jeeyapuram and Vathalai sides of Mukkombu which teems with visitors on weekends, holidays, and summer vacation.

Being a picnic spot, police constables were deployed during day and night regularly.

A team of Striking Force personnel was on standby on weekends when visitors flock the spot in good numbers.

The important areas within the tourist spot have been brought under camera coverage to tighten the monitoring system, the officer said.

A few years ago, an Army Major R. Ramesh, a doctor in the Indian Army, was murdered in Mukkombu while pinning down a criminal who attempted to snatch the gold chain from the officer’s wife at knife-point.

The Major had come to Tiruchi from Visakhapatnam as part of a medical team to screen candidates selected during the Army recruitment drive.

He went on an outing along with his family when the gruesome incident occurred in February 2010.

The horrific murder made the police establish a temporary outpost then to keep a round-the-clock vigil in turns at Mukkombu.