Noida’s ghost cop station

Satellite city's first all-women police station has no vehicle, arms and not even a telephone line

Noida's ghost cop station

Satellite city's first all-women police station has no vehicle, arms and not even a telephone line

A police station in the middle of nowhere, without any arms, vehicles and not even a telephone connection.
Barely after three months of its much hyped launch on January 1 2009, Noida's first all-women police station with a special counseling centre for women, is sitting idle.

A part of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's pet project for helping women, there is hardly any work at this station, which is operating from a temporary structure inside the district hospital compound.

It is working with a threadbare staff of four women police officers whereas the initial proposal was to have one woman station house officer, five women sub-inspectors and 40 women head constables. Even the special counseling cell is yet to be set up. No wonder then that the police station has only registered four cases in three months.

With no official means of communication, the police officers are forced to use their personal mobile phones to stay in touch. They do not even have a police jeep.

"We don't have a landline telephone connection. Nor is the station listed on the Noida website. No one in Noida knows about it and we hardly get any cases. Women police stations are aggressively promoted all over Uttar Pradesh. Though Noida is very sensitive and sees many women-related crimes, this station is neglected," said SO Geeta Gupta.

At the time of its inauguration, former SSP of Noida RK Chaturvedi had said, "The police station at Sector 39 is a temporary arrangement. A plot has been identified for a permanent structure at Sector 44 where the Noida Authority will soon begin construction work."