Police station to run from a community hall!

The newly-sanctioned Meerpet police station in the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate is all set to create a record even before it started functioning. It will be one of its kind to be run from a community hall! Property owners near Meerpet and the surrounding localities are reportedly refusing to give land on lease or rent to the police department for setting up the police station. Left with no other option, the Cyberabad police have decided to operate the police station from a community hall at Meerpet within a week.“The community hall is in a bad shape. It needs a compound wall and the toilets have to be renovated. Other basic facilities like rest rooms for constables will also have to be made available in the hall,” a senior police official said adding that it might take one week for the arrangements to be done.For more than a week, the Cyberabad police officials have made a vain bid to find a 100- square yard office space to set up the police station. It is not the dearth of suitable spaces that has made their task difficult, but the reluctance of owners to give their properties on lease.At one stage, the police made a desperate attempt to find an appropriate site enlisting the help of LB Nagar MLA D Sudheer Reddy and other local politicians but even that yielded no result.“None is willing to lease land for setting up the police station.We approached the owners of a number of properties that are convenient for police functioning and could accommodate the entire staff,’’ LB Nagar zone Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) A Satyanarayana told Expresso.“We are planning to set up the police station in a community hall in Meerpet area,’’ he added indicating that they would operate temporarily from the location. At least 40-45 personnel would be attached to the new station.Admitting the problem, MLA Sudheer Reddy said the police officials had indeed approached him and they are still on a hunt for a suitable site. “Even though a few owners agreed to give their properties on lease initially, they went back later. We will find a permanent place soon,” he said.The State Government sanctioned five new police stations in the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate limits at Kukatpally Housing Board Colony (KPHB), Medipally, Chaitanyapuri, Karmanghat and Shivarampally which would be carved out of the existing Kukatpally, Uppal, Saroornagar, LB Nagar and Rajendranagar police stations respectively.The LB Nagar zone has two divisions comprising as many as 11 police stations covering a population of 14.4 lakh. 

Mouli Mareedu

mouli@expressbuzz.com