Picture this: you cross Gujarat State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) barracks in Lal Baugh and you see sturdy men in khaki digging the ground for vegetables. How will you react? It surely does appear a little odd,but senior officers say that for the first time,SRPF jawans are growing vegetables for the cooperative and are getting handsome yields. The daily yield of brinjal is 50 kg while that of ladys finger is 25 kg. The whole exercise is part of social welfare activities of the SRPF. Jawans who come back after being posted for 11-12 months in various places work here,as gardening and farming helps the policemen relax, said Amit Vishwakarma,Commander,Group One,SRPF. He added: It is mainly for the welfare of the families stationed in the barracks and colonies that the jawans leave behind when they are posted in other stations. The idea is to make the barrack area completely self sufficient so that families do not have to step out. It may be mentioned that farming and other welfare activities started in the barracks which also houses the SRP colony in which 500 families resideonly after Gujarat Police won a case in the Supreme Court against some of the local builders who had staked claims on the land. Farming started on the land after being left unused for 30 years. Earlier,people used to throw garbage here and animals used to graze in this park. However,we managed to turn it into a cultivable land,and now we are getting a very good yield, said Constable Raisinh Chawda. Vishwakarma said that the barracks and residential colonies of Group One are undergoing renovation with a new supermarket and an SBI ATM coming up in the area. Half of the police uniforms for Gujarat Police are stitched by the wives of the policemen in a project involving 70 women from the SRPF colony,who make 65 to 80 uniforms every week at the cost of Rs 70 per uniform. Since most of the time their husbands are out,family welfare of the jawans becomes really important, added Vishwakarma. Chawda and a colleague displayed their yield,saying that they worked for 16 hours to get it done. This is our home away from home. It was like working in one of our fields so we did not mind doing a double shift and turning this little patch of land into something very fertile, added Chawda,who comes from a farming family in Junagadh. SRPF jawans posted in Valia have also moved to horticulture. The jawans in Valia barracks of Bharuch have had a very good yield of coconuts,bananas and other fruits, added Vishwakarma.
