CNN-IBN SPECIAL REPORT
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Cops complain of bad housing, worse working conditions
Published on Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 03:31, Updated on Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 03:43 in India section
Tags: Police Housing, Patna , New Delhi
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New Delhi: It was not just the Maharashtra state government that faced flak for treating cops guarding the Taj Mahal hotel with total callousness. Other states too are guilty of giving shabby, scant and dilapidated accommodations to cops on duty.
In Patna, the men in khakhi claim that they are forced to live under a structure that is in a terrible state.
Its roof leaks, bricks or chunks from the slab fall over sleeping cops and instead of its capacity of 300, it houses 3000 men in uniform.
The toilets are dysfunct with broken doors, water shortages plague the place here.
The president of the Bihar policemen's association, Jitendra Singh told CNN-IBN, "The policemen are compelled to serve or 16, sometimes even 18 hours of duty at a stretch. Won't that affect their health? The housing facilities are almost absent and the men then take turns at sleeping."
Tasked with fighting crime through the day, back in their barracks these men live under the constant fear of their lives. In the last one month alone, three cops have been injured due to bricks falling on them while they were asleep and the building has been declared unfit for human habitation.
Prasad said that the men suffer in silence as they fear the authorities.
The situation in the national capital region is no better as seen in the case of the police barracks in the Ghaziabad police lines. Constables complain of water shortage and poor condition of walls but fearing the wrath of senior officials none of them want to say this on camera.
Garbage dumps and stagnant water in places dot these police housing areas.
Broken walls and dangling wires tell a story of neglect.
In Madhya Pradesh, police constables get a house rent allowance of just 140 rupees per month. Families in a police colony in Bhopal have been given just one room each and there are hardly any basic facilities.
CNN-IBN correspondent Hemender found that despite repeated promises from the state government for providing 100 per cent housing facility to policemen, only 35 per cent have so far got accommodation. That accommodation too is only an ill-provided room in pathetic condition.
It is but natural that the uniformed men bear such bad conditions and then are lured by a better life that corruption accords them.
(With inputs from Prabhakar Kumar and Hemender Sharma)
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