Team Herald
PANJIM: With less than two months to go for the monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, the question of basic amenities for police on bandobast duty arises.
The treatment of police personnel on long duty hours during major events and the Assembly sessions has been discussed extensively considering that their requirements were given a cold shoulder until the Goa State Human Rights Commission (GSHRC) pitched in.
For the first time in five years, a month-long Assembly session has been summoned from July 11. Hundreds of armed
policemen and policewomen will be deployed in and around the Assembly complex to ensure the session goes smoothly and to maintain law and order.
There’s enough time before the upcoming session but will hot, cooked meals and refreshments, as well mobile toilet facilities be provided to the police personnel?
The GSHRC order came in after advocate Aires Rodrigues pointed out that refreshments and meals were not being served to the police personnel despite (then) Chief Secretary R K Srivastava giving an undertaking to GHRC that police personnel deployed on duty during the sessions will be provided food packets, water bottles and mobile toilet facilities.
Herald spoke to a few police personnel, who on condition of anonymity said they are looking forward to being “treated humanely”.
“It is only when the issue is highlighted in the media that the authorities wake up. During a recent Assembly session, women cops posted on either side of the Mandovi Bridge were forced to go in the bushes to relieve themselves. The food is stale. Nevertheless, the condition has improved in recent years,” said a head constable, posted on bandobast duty almost every Assembly session.
Another personnel said the need for mobile toilets at each duty point is a must. She also pointed out that they are made to starve on certain occasions. “We do get food but not on a regular basis. Moreover, it is not fresh. Some of us get home-cooked food but this goes stale by the lunch or dinner time because we travel from far-off places,” she added. The food controversy during the BRICS summit is still fresh in the minds of the people, with some on duty, who consumed the food falling sick due to unhygienic food.
The Commission has time and again heard the matter, placed before it by Rodrigues and recommended that the Goa government and Goa Police treat the police humanely. In its order in 2016, the Commission said that tea with snacks be provided between 3 pm and 4 pm, and dinner when the session extends beyond 8 pm to all police staff on duty during the session of the Goa Legislative Assembly.
While this is one of the issues plaguing cops, Herald will continue exploring and reporting on other aspects where our men and women in khaki deserve much better from the State.
