National

Polri gears up ahead of Ramadhan

Jumat, 6 Juni 2014 | 01:47 WIB

Jakarta, NU Online
The National Police (Polri) are set to deploy 137,795 personnel to safeguard the upcoming Islamic holy month of Ramadhan.<>

The measures, code-named Operation Ketupat, will run from June 2, seven days before the start of Ramadhan, until early August.

An Operation Ketupat committee member, Brig. Gen. Carlo Brix Tewu, said on Thursday that the personnel deployment would be concentrated in West Java, Central Java and the Pantura - Java’s northern coastal highway.

“This year, we’ve reduced the number of additional traffic police – from 6,000 officers to 2,000 officers. We need to be efficient because of the recent budget cuts,” he said in Jakarta.

As a result of the revised 2014 state budget, the National Police have seen their budget slashed by Rp 5.78 trillion (US$ 485 million) from the previous budget of Rp 44.97 trillion.

The cutback has forced the police to reduce the total number of officers participating in Operation Ketupat to 137,795 from last year’s 150,000.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq