ANUJ SHARMA, deputy commissioner of Calcutta Police (south division), met readers of The Telegraph at his office on January 27 to answer their queries. Participants included Samir Bhattacharya, Diptimoy Ghosh, Sudarshan Chhabra, Saileswar Chakrabarty, Jatindra Nath Das, S.K. Khetri, Sandip Banerjee, D.G. Pillai and Chandrima Sen

Diptimoy Ghosh : There are several apartments and streets in the area under your jurisdiction that are infamous as hubs of flesh trade. The phenomenon seems to be on the rise. Why are the police failing to control flesh trade?

In some buildings in the area, flesh trade has been going on for a long time. Many of my predecessors have tried to put an end to the practice, but have failed.

We have raided several buildings and arrested a few girls along with their customers. The tenancy and sub-tenancy problems in the houses often delay us from taking legal action against the guilty.

I am aware that such activities are also going on in some massage parlours and physiotherapy clinics. We raid such establishments whenever we get a tip-off and try to catch the girls red-handed. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to prove their guilt.

Recently, we had undertaken a drive to keep these women off the road so that they do not harass pedestrians. As these women do not confine their activities to a particular area, our mobile patrol vans keep a watch on the roads.

We are also keeping an eye on some apartments on Park Street, Free School Street, Middleton Row and a few adjacent lanes. But our experience shows that merely taking legal action against the women will not solve this problem.

Sudarshan Chhabra: I live on MacLeod Street. Some carpentry shops below our apartment make a tremendous noise all through the day. When we complain, the shop-owners start threatening us. How can we get help from the police?

We cannot take any action unless you lodge a complaint with the local police station. If you do not get relief from the police station, feel free to write to me, so that the inquiry into the case may be expedited. We can definitely book the offenders if we find that they are carrying on the business in violation of pollution-control norms.

Diptimoy Ghosh: What is the extent of the area under your jurisdiction and how many policemen are deployed?

The jurisdiction of my office extends over the entire south Calcutta division, but we have to look after the adjacent suburban area as well.

In general terms, we have to keep a watch over the area flanked by Esplanade in the north, Kidderpore canal in the south, a part of Jadavpur in the east and Vidyasagar Setu and Netaji Indoor stadium in the west.

More than 2,206 policemen of different ranks, from inspectors to constables and home guards, look after the area. There are 15 police stations that are supervised by five assistant commissioners, who report directly to the deputy commissioner.

Unless our personnel are dedicated to their work, it would be very difficult to keep a tab on criminal activity over such a vast stretch. Since the area has a mixed inhabitation pattern, ranging from rich residences in the Ballygunge and Tollygunge areas to the shanties of Kidderpore, the crime pattern also ranges from white-collar crime to violence.

Chandrima Sen: Officers of Lake police station often harass and extort money from young people who utilise the area as a rendezvous point. Are you aware of the problem?

Some young people indulge in indecent acts in the Lake area. Generally, police take action only against these youths. But every once in a while, we get reports that officers are harassing even innocent people. In such cases, I would request the people who have been unnecessarily harassed to come to me directly, so that an identification parade can be made and the guilty officers punished.

To be concluded next week