By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI:
At least 62 police stations in the state don’t have telephone connections whereas nine police stations don’t have vehicles, and similarly, nine police stations don’t have wireless or mobile communication, said a report of a Parliamentary panel on Home Affairs.
Out of the total 74 police stations in the State, 65 have vehicles, 12 police stations have telephones and 65 have wireless and mobiles.
The Parliamentary committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma in its 237th report on Police-training, modernisation and reforms has found that police stations in other Northeastern states face similar situations.
As many as 141 police stations in Assam do not have telephones, whereas four police stations don’t have vehicles. The report, in possession of The Meghalayan, further said that one police station in the state does not have wireless or mobile.
Out of the total 344 police stations in Assam, 340 have vehicles, 203 have telephone connections, whereas 343 have wireless or mobiles.
The report further said that out of the 91 police stations in Arunachal Pradesh, 54 don’t have telephones, four don’t have vehicles and four don’t have wireless or mobile.
All the 86 police stations in Nagaland have vehicles, whereas 50 have telephones. The report said that 68 police stations in the state have wireless and mobiles whereas the remaining 18 don’t have these.
Interestingly, Mizoram is the only state in the North East where all its 42 police stations have telephone connections, vehicles and wireless as well as mobiles.
The Committee is of the view that modern policing requires strong communication support, state-of-the-art modern weapons, and a high degree of mobility for quick response.
“In the 21st century India, there are police stations without telephones or proper wireless connectivity especially in many sensitive states like Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Punjab, particularly in view of the fact that some of these States had been rewarded with better performance incentives in the year 2018-19,” the report tabled in the Rajya Sabha on February 10 said.
Further, a very sensitive border Union Territory like Jammu & Kashmir also has a sizeable number of police stations that do not have telephones and wireless sets.
The Committee, therefore, recommended that the MHA advise such states to immediately equip their police stations with adequate vehicles and communication devices else it may lead to dis-incentivisation of modernisation grants from the Centre.