Clean police station drive yet to take off

“The N M Joshi Marg and Mahim police stations have managed to ensure cleanliness, while work is still in progress at Kherwadi. The rest of them are yet to get into the act,”said project conceiver, K L Prasad, Additional Commissioner, central region.

The campaign was to be implemented with the help of private sponsors and non-governmental organisations. However, there were few who pitched in to get the project off the ground.

A recent survey revealed that police stations in the central region including Dharavi, Worli and Nirmal Nagar were the dirtiest of the 74 in the city.The surroundings and the environment of the premises were unhygienic and prone to cause harmful diseases.

Prasad had launched the project to clean up the police station premises and allow his men to work in healthy atmosphere. To this end, Prasad exhorted his senior police inspectors to seek help from private sponsors like nationalised banks and airlines. Prasad also announced a cash reward of Rs 5,000 for the cleanest police station.

However, despite the passage of several weeks, most police stations are yet to give their police stations a clean sparkling look. The three zonal deputy commissioners in the region including Zone-III, A Srirao, Zone-IV, R G Kadam and Zone-VIII Sadanand Date had chipped in to make the campaign successful but are now finding their efforts to be in doldrums.

Worst affected is Zone-VIII where police stations like Dharavi, Kherwadi, Nirmal Nagar and Vile Parle are located. “ICICI could have been one of our major sponsors but since they recently donated office equipment worthRs 20 lakhs to all police stations in the zone it is difficult to approach them again,” said a police officer.

The officers are now planning to approach domestic airlines.