This is stranger than fiction. The makeshift arrangements for police personnel at Dabolim airport tell a very inhumane story. Twenty-two women police are made to fit into a 3x3 metre barrack exposing them to extreme afternoon heat in the absence of any air-conditioning. That’s not all. While there is an acute space crunch, there is a threadmill fitted into the cabin, barely giving them room for movement. And the worst part is there are no toilet facilities for these women who work round the clock, including night duty. Ironically, just adjacent to this are two air-conditioned cabins allocated to two dogs belonging to the CISF at Dabolim airport.
Police are often pulled up for their high-handed and careless attitude, but very little has been spoken about the trauma they undergo with miserable living conditions at the barracks. They are required to work long duration shifts and are exposed to challenging situations while on duty. The several malaria and dengue cases that are reported in the police force are testimony of the grim and unhygienic work conditions.
If Margao police station barracks are filthy and toilet facilities not fit for humans, in nearby Fatorda it is even worse where the constabulary is accommodated in a small dingy room on the first floor of the building housing the police station. Constables are given the option of taking rest at the Margao district police headquarters. Sadly, two or three personnel are made to share a metal bed. Forget about an air-conditioning facility, there are not even proper fans and lighting. In Panaji and Mormugao too, police are exposed to pathetic conditions. In some places, 15 policemen are given 3 beds to share. What an equation.
If 22 women police are made to adjust in one cabin, why have the police bosses not taken up this issue with the airport authorities? Police top brass who are operating from the comforts of their AC offices akin to five-star luxuries must be sensitive to at least the basic requirements of the force. Just because police have been working silently under testing conditions, should they be taken for granted? Rather than blaming the airport authorities, the police higher-ups need to be held responsible for not showing any concern to the working conditions of the workforce.
Successive assurances of upgrading facilities have failed and patchy repairs have not lived up to the requirements. Adding a bed or a fan and calling it an upgrade will not change their living conditions. Police barracks are in the pits and despite all the talk of development that Goa is headed, its workforce continues to be neglected. There was no drastic change during Manohar Parrikar’s active role as a chief minister, and we can’t expect the scene to get any better soon. Hope the collective conscience of the administration wakes up to this failure.
