VIP duty apart, these cops play Tom with in-house Jerrys

The High Grounds police share their office space with rodents — and broken promises.

The latest yet-to-be-met promise was made by home minister VS Acharya, on June 15 this year. The promise was a new building for the police station.

“We have identified land in front of Race Course, adjacent to the chief minister’s official residence. The land measuring quarter-an-acre, belonging to the revenue department, will be the location for the new police station. It was decided to commence the construction immediately,” he had then said.

Three months later, the construction is yet to begin on the “identified land.” The term, “immediately”, seems to have lost its relevance for the police personnel, who spent their duty hours in the tin-roofed shack, which only the city police department may prefer to use as “office.”

The police personnel, however, is still hopeful that they will get a proper building constructed on the promised land. They are diligently following up the movement of the file, which sooner of later, will decide the fate of their station building.

“Yes, there is some development after four years on the construction of a permanent police station. We are told that the file is now with the revenue minister, and it is being processed,” inspector DT Virupakshappa, of High Grounds, said.

The station house officer did not complain about the sorry state in which they are working. “Ours is a disciplined department. We should work under whatever condition we are asked to. No matter how bad the amenities are, we have to serve our best. We are trying to do so without complaints.”

The personnel have taken up an additional task, which was never assigned to them: chasing the rats. And the chase, at times, becomes comical for the onlooker. But for the policemen, saving office files from the rats is a serious affair.

What the station has in abundance, besides rats and broken promises, is water, especially during rainy days. The leaking roof contributes more to the water that also seeps into the shack from outside, making work miserable for the police.

The station does not have a proper washroom. “It is a problem for both men and women, but the men can somehow manage. We are allowed to use the washroom in the parking lot of the Turf Club. But it is not always in a usable condition,” a woman constable said on the condition of anonymity.

About 25 police stations in the city are housed in rented buildings. Why not us too, an officer wondered. The High Grounds police station was shifted to the shack after its building was demolished for widening the stretch connecting Palace Road and Sankey Road.