Can't let a mother languish on streets, says Officers of Saki Naka police station

In a heartwarming story that is miles away from the regular tales of cop brutality, a 65-year-old woman was recently found languishing in the premises of Saki Naka police station. But, instead of letting sleeping dogs lie, the officers made inquiries and learnt that she became homeless after a dispensary where she worked was demolished, thus losing her income and home. The officers then decided to help her find a home, but when NGO's, old age homes and politicians, none showed up to help, they themselves took initiative and found her a shelter in Karjat. As an added gesture, around 250 cops from the Saki Naka police contributed from their own pockets to create a Rs 30,000 corpus for the woman.

"On May 15, when I was at station house duty, an old woman came to the police station. She did not appear like a beggar. I made inquiries and she said she was Lata Pardeshi, working as a cleaner in a dispensary at Mohali Pipeline area for the last 20 years," said police sub-inspector Nilesh Bhalerao.

"The immediate thing that we wanted to do is that make some arrangement for her to stay somehwere safe. We have a woman's room on the third floor of our police station. Since Pardeshi is very old, it was not feasible for her and then we decided to make her stay in a nearby temple till we found a more permanent solution," said PSI Bhalerao.

Police inspector Sunil Mane said, "We made calls and finally a Karjat-based old-age home agreed to keep her. All of us contributed in our own capacity to build a fund for her that she can utilise in the time of need," adding, "After all, she too, is like my mother. Who would want to see a mother languishing?"