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Primary school teachers man police check-posts in rural Pune
In view of the shortfall in police manpower, primary teachers have been appointed for bandobast duty in many parts of rural Pune
Someshwar Bhagwan and Appa Sawant are primary school teachers in government schools. However, in these times of Covid-19 and the lockdown, they are required to keep awake the entire night for their duty at the police check-post (naka bandi) in Bhor taluka.
In view of the shortfall in police manpower, primary teachers have been appointed for bandobast duty in many parts of rural Pune.
Sudam Ombale, the Bhor taluka teachers association president, said, “Around 335 teachers have been appointed on check-post duty and a total of 32 check-posts have been erected on roads in Bhor taluka. We are receiving good support from officials, but it is a fact that in remote areas, people are facing some problems. Teachers did not get safety equipment and on their own have been purchasing sanitisers and masks. At some places, there is the issue of safety at night.”
Vishal Tanpure, block development officer (BDO) from Bhor, said, “It is true that teachers have been assigned the role of policing. As there is limited manpower with the police, we have decided to depute teachers and this practice is getting followed all over Maharashtra. Earlier, we tried to give support of the home guards to teachers, but home guards too have less manpower and now only teachers are doing the policing work. As Bhor is close to Pune, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is huge reverse migration and a total of 22,000 people from Mumbai and Pune returned to Bhor taluka as cases increased in both the cities.”
Bhagwan who has been appointed at Kusgaon in Bhor taluka of Pune district, said, “This is a totally different experience for us. We have done census enumeration work and we have been on election duty and other kinds of work. But this is the first time that we are doing the work of policemen and that too on night duty.”
Bhagwan, who has been given the responsibility of the check-post in Kusgaon, said, “The locals follow the instructions, but outsiders get into arguments and try to clear the check-post without a valid pass. Some of them argue with us saying we have no authority to stop them as we are not policemen.”
The teachers work in three shifts and every teacher has to do night duty by rotation. Two of them stay awake the entire night to man the check-posts.
“We have managed the chairs and the bamboos on our own to barricade the road. We enter the number of each vehicle passing by this road in a register and check whether they have a valid pass or not,” Bhagwan said.
Appa Sawant, a teacher from Bhor taluka, said he has done night patrolling and survey and supervision of people during the quarantine. “This is a completely different kind of work. The government should ideally put revenue staff like talathi or people from some other department with authority along with us teachers as people don’t listen to us,” Sawant said.
“To put teachers on road duty is not right,” he said, while adding that there were no complaints about this given the extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The check-post is absolutely bare with basic provisions and the villagers are also not assisting in any way due to the lockdown, one teacher said. Since Bhor taluka is close to Pune city, many people have been trying to go to their villages to be away from the city. When stopped at the check-post, they get into heated arguments, said Sawant. He noted that at some check-posts there was no power supply and the teachers were sitting in the dark the entire night.
A teacher who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “Our check-post is in an isolated location and two of us are manning it. When some people get into a heated argument, we just take down the number of their vehicle and allow them to pass by.”
He said that in some villages, there was resistance to allowing people from Pune and Mumbai to return home and the police was at once informed of their presence. They are then asked to stay in isolation, he said.
