E-Paper
Police stations in ravines sans phones
LIFE IS getting back to normal in Charauli and Lalupura villages, under police station is Bithauli, where on March 14 night, dreaded dacoit Jagjeevan Parihar and his gang members killed three persons and abducted three villagers.
LIFE IS getting back to normal in Charauli and Lalupura villages, under police station is Bithauli, where on March 14 night, dreaded dacoit Jagjeevan Parihar and his gang members killed three persons and abducted three villagers.
But, the irony is that despite threats from dacoits of the ravines, three police stations that fall in the Chakarpur circle don’t have landline connections. The communication scenario in these police stations is so weak that station heads have to rely on the services of private telecom operators.
Two other police stations, Sahson and Bhare, too have been devoid of landline connections. Interestingly, no police official ever bothered to pay any heed to it. Irrespective of the fact that 80 per cent of the area is dacoit-infested, nothing was done by the police administration to improve communication facility in these police stations.
Geographical complexity also compounds their miseries. Five rivers, including Chambal, Yamuna and Kaveri, flow in the border area of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
And due to the course of these rivers places like Bhind in MP and Auraiya and Etawah in UP have been soft target for dreaded dacoits like Nirbhay Gujjar, Rajjan Gujjar, Fakkad, Ramveer and Salim. Now, fresh threats come from Jagjeevan Parihar.
Though cops at these police stations have been provided with advance arsenals like AK-47, SLRs and carbines, according to some police officials who are guarding these stations, often their number is too less to confront any threat emanating from dacoits.
According to a police official, on an average every police station in the Chakarpur Circle has a station head, 2-4 S-Is and 18-20 constables. All depend on mobile phones of station heads and some wireless sets.
Meanwhile, commenting on the communication facilities in dacoit-hit areas in Etawah district, DIG Kanpur Zone Daljit Singh Chaudhary said, “It’s true that there is no land line connection but our work is being done effectively with the help of mobiles, wireless sets and WLL (wireless in local loops).”
