GUWAHATI: All’s not well with Noonmati Police Station in the heart of Guwahati.
The barrack of the police station has perforated corrugated iron sheets overhead that give in water when it pours. The barrack has walls made of sliced bamboo. That too gives in water when there is slanting rains. The barrack with the porous roof is in no way a happy place for them to flake out. This is not all. The barrack looks like a cubbyhole as around six/seven personnel have to get themselves accommodated in a single room.
The police station has to deal with a population of around one lakh under its jurisdiction. It covers areas like Pub Gitanagar, No 2 Modghoria, Panipath, Forest Gate, Noonmati, Swahid Nagar, Narengi, Birkuchi, Bhabanipur etc.
Guwahati police was modernized on January 1, 2015. However, the condition of this police station has barely improved over the years. This is despite the fact that the Chief Minister himself is one who looks after the Home Department.
The condition of the traffic branch in this police station is no different. It lacks enough space to keep vehicles. Old and out of order vehicles kept in the traffic branch of the police station have not been auctioned for a long time. The rusty and rickety vehicles add to pollution in the police station.
The police station is below par on the manpower front as well. It has one inspector, five sub-inspectors against the requirement of seven, three assistant sub-inspectors against four sanctioned posts, four head constables against nine sanctioned posts, not a single nayak against six sanctioned posts and only 15 constables against 64 sanctioned posts. Barring the inspector, the rest of the personnel have four barracks that are in very poor condition.
A total of 4,390 cases were registered in the police station from 2007 to 2015. However, the police station lacks adequate manpower to investigate those cases.