Women's police station meted shabby treatment

Inaugurated few days back, the station does not even have enough chairs and tables to sit and work

Devanshi Joshi. Vadodara/DNA
Thursday, November 20, 2008

Ideally citizens go to a police station to resolve their problems but where do the police go to resolve theirs? The question has been spurred by the dismal state of the womens police station at Vadodara, where lady police officials are working in a sorry plight without adequate infrastructure.

Only a few days back, the citys first womens police station had been inaugurated in a grand ceremony. It was aimed to make women comfortable with their complainants and the police station more approachable by having lady police officials.But the place is ailing with pitiful infrastructure, with no water facility in the toilet. The station does not have enough chairs and tables even to sit and work. Women police officials sit on the floor and take down complaints. The officials have to use the SSG hospital toilet, across the road.

A lady police constable on the condition of anonymity told DNA, “When people come for registering complainants, we cannot even offer them a seat, as we do not have adequate chairs to accommodate our own staff. We sit on the floor to work. For women, water is a necessity in the toilet. So we use the SSG hospital toilet.”
When this police station was set up, all other police stations of the city had been ordered to provide chairs to them. But another police official revealed that anyway most of the chairs were broken and therefore useless.

When questioned about the affair, police commissioner Rakesh Asthana said, “The police station was set up in haste. And the plan to provide facilities is underway, but will take time. Even a new building is in the offing, but the time has not been scheduled yet. Water facilities in the toilet will soon be taken care of.” He indirectly tried to point out the limitations of the bureaucracy in reference to the above mentioned. But there seems hope yet, that the citys only womens police station will be given the importance it rightfully deserves.