Boxes for holding complaint cards and information forms lie empty at a police kiosk at Ultadanga. Picture by Tamaghna Banerjee

Shweta Manpuria, 29, was refused by a taxi at the Shyambazar crossing at 1.30pm on a weekday. Fuming, she headed for the nearby kiosk of Calcutta police and asked for a traffic complaint form. But Manpuria was in for a surprise — a lady constable of the green police sitting inside the kiosk was clueless about the availability of such a form.

“It seemed the woman had never heard of a complaint form and directed me towards a constable sitting on a chair beside the kiosk. The constable said the forms were kept at the police station and I would have to visit the nearest police station to get the forms. I was frustrated and left the kiosk,” said Manpuria, an IT professional.

This is not an isolated incident. Several police kiosks across town have run out of traffic complaint cards, domestic help verification forms, stationery for filing complaints and petitions and tenant profile forms.

The city police had started stocking these forms at police kiosks and traffic booths around six months back.

“We want citizens to stay alert and provide the police with valuable information to help us serve the people better. People can furnish details of an unknown domestic help or a new tenant through these forms and also lodge complaints against road rule violations,” said Jawed Shamim, the joint commissioner of police (headquarters).

Metro visited police kiosks at Ekbalpore, Park Circus, Esplanade, Belgachhia, Sealdah, Beleghata, Rashbehari Avenue and the Maidan area and found all of them had run out of the forms.

At Park Circus, the constable inside the kiosk said forms were unavailable and routed Metro to the adjacent traffic signalling booth. There, another constable said complaint forms had been exhausted and promised to bring some from the nearby police station within an hour. When Metro returned to the booth after four hours, it still did not have the forms.

The traffic police chief, however, claimed ignorance about the shortage of complaint cards and forms.

“Nobody has informed me about the shortage. I will look into the matter and make sure that the forms are available in adequate numbers in the kiosks as well as in traffic signal control booths,” said Dilip Banerjee, the deputy commissioner of police (traffic).

Banerjee said traffic complaint cards were not new — they had been introduced in 2001. But it was only in mid-2009 that the cops started displaying the cards and forms at their booths and kiosks so that “people would use them more often”.

“We receive around 1,000 complaints per month verbally and over phone. Around 200 complaints are registered through complaint cards in a month. Displaying the cards at booths and kiosks has been a major success,” said the deputy commissioner.