Know your Police Station: NH-24 keeps Ghazipur PS on its toes

Known as one of the top border police stations,the policemen at the Ghazipur police station are tasked do 24x7 patrolling at the NH24. Against the sanctioned strength of ten policemen, only three to four policemen have to supervise the patrolling at the highway. Police officers posted at the Ghazipur police station also revealed that the police station, suffers from acute water shortage in the absence of regular water supply from the water tankers.

Spread across one acre of land, Ghazipur police station stands right opposite the giant Ghazipur landfill. It is also one of the newly established police stations of the East district; the police station was formally set up in 2010. Prior to this, it functioned from the Kalyanpuri police station. Covering areas of Ghazipur village, Fish mandi, fruit mandi, slaughter house and Mayur Vihar phase three, the station looks after an approximate three lakh population.

One of the crucial tasks assigned to the cops of the Ghazipur police station is the 24x 7 checking and patrolling duty at the NH-24. Talking about how the policemen handle the situation, a police official working at the station for the last two years said, “The police station is divided into five beats. Although four PCR vans do round the clock patrolling in the area, three to four men from our police station as well as our gypsy are always posted at the picket which we set up at the NH-24. While the four cops work during the day, the other four work during the night. This is a hectic job but we are happy to work,” Talking about the crimes which keep the policemen at the Ghazipur police station on their toes, another police officer said that they mostly receive cases of night burglaries, fatal accidents and the kidnapping cases.

The police station has the strength of three inspectors, 11 Sub-Inspectors, seven Sub-Inspectors, 33 Head Constables and 84 Constables. Talking about the problem of staff shortage, a police officer requesting anonymity said, “As opposes to sanctioned strength of 43 Head Constables, we have 33 Head Constables while as opposed to the sanctioned strength of 98 Constables, we have 84 constables. Although the staff crunch is not high, yet we feel the pressure when it comes to handling investigation apart from doing the checking duty at the NH-24.”

Talking about another prominent problem which plagues the police station, the officer said, “We get our drinking water only through water tankers but since the tanker does not come here on a regular basis, we are left high and dry. As far as water in the toilets, we manage with the ground water.”