BHUBANESWAR: AT a time when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik claims that his Government is committed to safety and concerns of women, police stations are running sans lady police officers.
A case in point is Saheed Nagar police station, one of the most busy police stations in the Capital, which is without a lady police officer for the last 10 months.Sources said, a sub-inspector-ranked lady officer posted at Saheed Nagar police station was promoted to the rank of inspector and then transferred. Another lady sub-inspector joined in 2017 and went on maternity leave a couple of months later. “The lady officer went on maternity leave in May, and since then we are facing problems while dealing with cases related to women,” a cop at Saheed Nagar police station said.
“There are slums like Shantipalli Basti, Tarini Basti, Science Park Basti, Pathar Bandha Basti and many small ones under Saheed Nagar police limits. Women of these slums approach us for all their troubles everyday, including mental or physical harassment, dowry torture and we have to call a lady constable while recording their statements,” he added.
At times when the cases are sensitive, they have to write to the Zone ACP requesting him to depute a lady police officer from either Mancheswar or Nayapalli police stations as the three PS come under sub-division V.The vacancy in the lady police officer post has also affected the functioning of Mahila and Sishu desk of the police station. Lady police personnel and officers are trained to be sensitive when handling crimes against women.
They are shouldered with the responsibility of encouraging women to report crimes. The laws against rape and sexual offences have strengthened a woman police officer’s importance and their roles include recording statements from the victims along with being present during registration of complaints.Contacted, Saheed Nagar police station in-charge ACP Kishore Mund said, “the lady sub-inspector who is on maternity leave will re-join duty.”
.jpg "(AP Photo)")
