There is not one, but two residential barracks in the city, exclusively meant for the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) personnel. One is located in the premises of the state director general of police’s (DGP) office. The other is in the compound of the city police commissioner’s office.
And yet, 28 SRPF jawans guarding the Taj Mahal Hotel were forced to use the Gateway as a temporary shelter for almost a month before they were booted out by a police team on Thursday. The SRPF jawans were told to spend the night on the road till alternative arrangements were made.
Blame it on the lack of coordination between the DGP’s office and the office of the Mumbai police commissioner. Lack of initiative on the part of senior police officials led to this embarrassing situation, admitted an officer of the Mumbai police on condition of anonymity.
Additional DGP Ajit Parasnis, who is in charge of the SRPF, is on leave. Ashok Sharma, another additional DGP who has taken over the reins in Parasnis’s absence, told DNA on Friday that it was the responsibility of the Mumbai police to attend to every need of the SRPF jawans after they had been sent to the city.
“The DGP’s office posted the SRPF men at the request of the Mumbai police. This 28-man force, attached to the Solapur SRPF centre, was sent about a month ago. We normally keep our men in one place for two months at a stretch. If the services of our jawans are required for a longer duration, we send in a new unit,” Sharma said. “And always, it is the duty of the local police to provide accommodation and other logistic support to the SRPF personnel.”
City police commissioner D Sivanandhan agreed with Sharma. “They (the SRPF jawans) are our responsibility, and we will definitely look after them.” However, he failed to explain why the jawans had not been looked after for the past one month.
Former IPS officer YP Singh, who had once been the head of the Mumbai SRPF unit, said, “The SRPF is posted for field duties only in cases of unrest and emergencies. Once the situation is under control, the armed units are sent back to their respective barracks. I fail to understand why the SRPF men are camping in Mumbai for so long.”
“There was no coordination between the DGP’s office and that of the CP. Both seemed oblivious to the presence of the SRPF men in the city,” said a senior IPS officer.
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