Two of the pack of eight canines that keep Palm Avenue awake at night. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

One is the hand that fires, the other is the hand that feeds. A loaded gun in the holster and a packet of biscuits in the pocket is what cops guarding the chief minister?s address on Palm Avenue carry these nights. For, they are on a twin mission to keep the zone safe and also silent.

If the service revolver is for use against criminals, the biscuits are to pacify a pack of canines out to howl the neighbourhood out of its stupor.

And the strain of playing the curious dual role is showing on the cops guarding Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee?s residence. There are eight street dogs around the residence that insist on barking away, denying the ?silence zone? a full night?s sleep.

To keep the peace on Palm Avenue and the canine brigade quiet, police have had to put together a biscuit kitty. ?We spend money from our own pockets to buy biscuits and for this, we share the cost equally,? revealed a Special Branch official.

The long arm of the law is, for once, tied, as the dogs can?t be driven out of the locality without the approval of the chief minister daughter Suchetana, a wildlife activist.

A few weeks ago, acting on information provided by Special Branch officials, a dog squad from Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) arrived and picked up two dogs from the area. But the very next day, acting ?under instructions?, they were brought back to the same spot.

?During the day, handling the dogs is far easier. Whenever they start barking, we give them two or three biscuits and they go silent,? said an inspector from the Special Branch.

?But at night, the situation often goes out of hand, as the dogs sometimes show scant interest in the light bite. The moment they hear a dog in an adjacent locality barking, all eight start howling here. When the lure of biscuits fails, we have no option but to chase the dogs away and keep a close eye on them throughout the night.?

During every shift, at least 15 police personnel, from both the Special Branch and Karaya police station, are deployed in front of the chief minister?s residence. All of them confirmed never having received any complaint against the dogs from the precious Palm Avenue address.

?We have not even been told to stop the dogs from barking. We do it on our own, because maintaining a peaceful atmosphere around the chief minister?s residence is our prime responsibility,? explained an official.

And despite a recent shootout near the high-security home, cops on duty claim that curbing criminals is easier than muzzling the mongrels.