Ten out of 16 police stations under the Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) fail to provide service to their locals as they have been suffering from multiple problems for a long time.
According to police sources, Halishahar, Bayezid, Karnaphuli, Bakalia, Akbarshah, Khulshi, Sadarghat, Bandar, Patenga and Pahartali ploce stations, face serious problems like shortage of space, accommodation, transport and water even after being established as metropolitan police stations.
Halishahar, Karnaphuli, Bakalia and Akbarshah are forced to rent houses in order to carry out their activities as they do have government appointed buildings.
Halishahar police station is paying Tk36,000 per month for rented a two-storied building while Bakalia police station pays Tk20,000 monthly, police sources said.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Akbarshah police station Abdur Razzak said, their police station that was formed this year, also carries out their activities in a rented building.
Karnaphuli police station, situated on the south bank of Karnaphuli River, was in the worst condition amongst all the CMP police stations. The station’s activities were conducted from a dilapidated building, which was borrowed from the Union Parishad authority after its establishment.
Bayezid and Khulshi became CMP police stations in 2000 however; the infrastructural facilities of the two stations were not up to mark. They conduct their activities in houses so small that cannot be regarded as police stations.
Moreover, the Sadarghat and Chawkbazar police stations, were upgraded to police stations from police camps this year, and conduct their activities from their camp buildings.
Pahartali police station continues their activities from the police station barracks as their own building was under construction.
In every police station, more than 20 police officials conduct their activities from one office-room.
Sub-Inspector Anwar Hossain of Pahartali police station said, “Four of us work from a small table in our police station. The general public is always in a state of confusion and chaos when they come in, mainly because of the crowds, noise and lack of space.”
More than 30 police officers use a portion of the police station building for living, as they do not have a barrack. The canteens are also untidy, claimed the police officials.
An official of Bayezid police station expressed his regrets and said, “We have gotten used to the problems, and still manage to carry out our activities.”
According to sources, old police stations like Kotwali, Double-Mooring, Panchlaish, Chandgaon were in a relatively better situation than CMP’s new police stations.
The officers also face a shortage of drinking water, said Constable Salauddin of Bayezid police station.
“We have to travel to a distant place via the police van to collect our water as there is no water source near our police station,” said Assistant Sub-Inspector Monirul Islam of Karnaphuli police station.
In addition to the water shortage, there was also a lack of toilet facilities in police stations and police outposts. Compared to the outposts the stations are in much better condition.
The OCs of these police stations said they had informed the higher authorities about their problems and got assurances that they would be resolved as soon as possible.
Banaz Kumar Majumdar, additional commissioner of CMP told the Dhaka Tribune, “We are trying to mitigate the problems as fast as we can. We have spoken with the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) about the allocation of land for the police stations and they have formed a committee. After getting allotment from the government we can resolve the space and accommodation problems.”
“We cannot improve the condition of police stations right now, due to a lack of resources and limitations,” he added.
