Posted next to garbage depot, cops soldier on

  • | Sunday | 11th November, 2018

The resulting stench is often too much to bear for people who live or work near the area. Some of them are poorly covered and spill garbage along the way. “There is the issue of getting a vacant plot of land nearby, which is difficult here,” another policeman posted at the chowkey said. “They have put up these large barriers on top of the boundary walls, so that people outside do not have to look at the garbage. Many people who come to the police chowkey ask us how we survive here,” said a constable posted there.During the day, the facility is manned by eight cops, with only three on duty at night.

Pune: In the upscale Koregaon Park area, policemen attached to the police chowkey on North Main Road have to contend with not only crime, but also foul stench from an adjacent garbage transfer centre.The cops breathe their way through every stench-filled day in the cramped premises of the chowkey, which is more important than the Koregaon Park police station under the railway overbridge, partly due to the latter’s location nearly 4km away.The chowkey is housed in a small, three-room prefabricated structure with fibre sheets, separated from the garbage transfer station by a boundary wall and a fetid alley.All day long, large trucks and compactors filled with garbage drive into the transfer station. Some of them are poorly covered and spill garbage along the way. The resulting stench is often too much to bear for people who live or work near the area. “They have put up these large barriers on top of the boundary walls, so that people outside do not have to look at the garbage. But there is no escaping the stench. I often feel sick due to the odour,” said Swapan Dam, who works as a cook at a nearby restaurant.The cops, meanwhile, have become used to the stench, even though it is admittedly a constant irritant. “Of course the stench is very disconcerting. Look at the (chowkey) here, there is no air-conditioning. The structure is really small. The ventilation is poor. So the stench constantly hangs over us. But we cannot do anything. Should we not perform our duty because of this odour? Many people who come to the police chowkey ask us how we survive here,” said a constable posted there.During the day, the facility is manned by eight cops, with only three on duty at night. The chowkey has no demarcated parking area, forcing the cars and two-wheelers — of the staff as well as the visitors — to spill over onto the narrow carriageway.“I came here to file a complaint, and in the 10 minutes that took me, I felt queasy and disgusted by the stench. I wonder how the policemen survive and work here,” said M Suresh, who lives a few minutes from the chowkey.The cops have often asked their superiors to shift the chowkey elsewhere, but they are also aware of the logistics involved. “There is the issue of getting a vacant plot of land nearby, which is difficult here,” another policeman posted at the chowkey said.

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