The police outpost on the premises of the outdoor ward of MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, July 20: Infrastructure shortage has affected the functioning of the Medical police outpost situated at the entrance of the outdoor unit of MKCG Medical College and Hospital here.

“The Medical police outpost has been running in a 10ftX10ft room at the entrance of the hospital’s outdoor ward for the last seven years. Earlier, it was located near the ground of the medical college. But, its location was shifted to the present position because of security reasons,” said sub-divisional police officer Sarat Mahapatra.

“We do not have any lock-up room for male and female offenders, latrine and bathroom for the staff, rest room, inspection room, armoury and duty room here,” said Narayan Chandra Pati, an assistant sub-inspector at the outpost

The outpost has two assistant sub-inspectors and six constables.

Though the outpost is running from the MKCG outdoor ward, there is no signboard mentioning its location. The furniture inside the outpost room include two tables, one cot, three chairs and one bench. There is not even an almirah in the room to store records.

While several incidents of bike, bicycle and mobile phone theft are reported from the MKCG campus regularly, attacks on attending doctors and para-medical staff are also reported frequently. “We also have to look after the bodies of persons died in the hospital till their inquest and post-mortem,” said Pati.

Berhampur police have requested the MKCG authorities to provide them with a substitute building to run the outpost.

“The police had requested us to handover a building in front of the forensic medicine and toxicology department which earlier housed Berhampur Mahila police station. We are going to repair and renovate the building. As soon as it is repaired, we will hand over the building to the Medical police outpost,” said MKCG superintendent Ashok Kumar Behera.