17 May,2012 07:23 AM IST | | Sandip Kolhatkar
To bring transparency at the police station level and encourage people to lodge complaints, the Hadapsar police station has put up a notice at the complaint desk that says if any constable or officer demands money for filing a complaint, then the affected person may directly talk to the senior police inspector on his mobile phone and complain against the police official concerned.
"We have put up the notice on a wall which is exactly behind the complaint desk so that the people who come to the police station to lodge a complaint or to seek help can read the notice and if any police personnel demand money from them, they can immediately call on my cell phone number, which is mentioned in the notice board," Senior Police Inspector Pandharinath Mandhare said.
After several cases of police officials caught demanding a bribe from people while lodging the complaint had come to the fore, Commissioner of Police Meeran Borwankar warned police personnel against indulging in activities that bring disrepute to the force.
Mandhare said that while there had been no bribe demands at the Hadapsar police station since he became in-charge of it, he was going the extra mile with the notice to assure people that corruption would not be tolerated.
"One thing I can say with great pride is that in my tenure as in-charge of the police station, I have not come across any case where a single police constable or officer was involved in taking money from a complainant," he said. "I have slapped the notice on the wall just to encourage people to come forward and lodge complaints and also to ensure that they will not be asked for money by the police station staff."
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) Sanjay Jadhav said the step taken by the Hadapsar police station was worth emulating at other places.
"It is first-of-its-kind initiative by the Hadapsar police station and I would like ask other police stations in the zone to take a cue from the Hadapsar police station and put up such a notice so that common people will not hesitate to step inside the police station," Jadhav said.u00a0
Just text to report sexual harassment
The Hadapsar police station some time ago started an SMS facility for college girls that allowed them to send a simple text message through the cell phone if anybody misbehaved or with them or indulged in eve-teasing. The initiative has received stupendous response, and several cases of eve-teasing were reported by the school and college girls. "After the SMS initiative (began), the cases of eve-teasing have gone down significantly in the area," Senior Police Inspector Pandharinath Mandhare said.