Safety Shield: Policemen around Sushil Kumar Modi at a public meeting

Patna, Feb. 1: Eighteen cops to guard a minister, just 17 for all under the jurisdiction of Naubatpur police station in Patna district — bahut na insafi hai (big injustice), ain’t?

But that’s the real picture of policing in Bihar. The sanctioned strength of several police stations in the state is not even 18 — the number of guards would be on duty to protect each minister.

The strength of Naubatpur police station in Patna district includes an inspector, four sub-inspectors, four assistant sub-inspectors and six constables.

“Naubatganj is a Naxalite-affected area and there is an additional strength of 10 Bihar Military Police jawans, seven Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) jawans and five jawans of the district armed police. The strength of the police station is just 17. There are four more probationary sub-inspectors, who cannot be included until they are made permanent. There are no bullet-proof gypsy and the condition of vehicles — one jeep and one minibus — is not satisfactory. In the Naxalite-hit police stations, there should be at least 15 SAP jawans. We just have seven,” a cop posted at the police station said.

Challenging job, aint?

Top cops said the situation would be “challenging” as most of the 872 police stations across the state, especially those in the rural areas, are short-staffed. More so, as the state government is yet to approve the appointment of 45,000 constables in the police force.

Additional director-general (headquarters) P.K. Thakur told The Telegraph additional men for the security of the ministers and legislators would be managed from the existing force.

“At this moment, we will balance both the sides from the existing force. Earlier, the state government announced the recruitment of 45,000 additional constables in order to be on a par with the national average of the police-public ratio. The proposal regarding the recruitment has been sent to the home department. The file is with the finance department at this moment. The recruitment will be done in phases as we don’t have the infrastructure to train 45,000 men at one go,” he said.

The decision to provide more security has not gone down too well with a section of the cops. K.K. Jha, the general secretary of Bihar Police Association, told The Telegraph the situation in the police stations in the rural areas was “pitiable”.

“Most of the 500 police stations in rural areas in Bihar are short-staffed. The situation at Naxalite-affected areas is the same if not worse. There are about 300 police stations in the state that are located in the rebel-hit areas. An addition to the security of ministers and legislators will reduce the protection of the masses,” Jha said.

The extra cover for people’s representatives would have been justified after the fresh recruitment, Jha said.

But that will take time. Till then, cops will have to stretch themselves. You and I will have to protect ourselves.