VASCO
Velsao social worker and former Velsao panch Roquezinho D’Souza on Thursday requested the State government to urgently strengthen the Verna Police Station, citing a shortage of 34 personnel and the rapidly increasing policing demands in the area.
D’Souza submitted a representation to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Director General of Police and Inspector General of Police, highlighting that the Verna Police Station has a sanctioned strength of 110 personnel, but only 76 are presently in position.
He offered a copy of the representation to Verna Police Inspector Anand Shirodkar on Thursday morning.
D’Souza said the issue goes beyond merely filling vacant posts, pointing out that the sanctioned strength itself was fixed years ago when the population, industrial activity, traffic and overall development of the area were considerably lower.
According to him, Verna Police Station now has a much larger policing responsibility, including support to the Verna, Cortalim and Birla police outposts. The growth of residential settlements, commercial establishments, vehicular movement and industrial activity has added considerably to the workload of the police force.
D’Souza has particularly sought greater police presence in the Birla-Zuarinagar area, which has a population of more than 20,000. He said the area requires regular patrolling, quicker police response and adequate manpower. He requested the government to reconsider the earlier proposal to upgrade the Birla Police Outpost into a full-fledged police station.
D’Souza said the existing shortage places additional pressure on police personnel, who are required to handle round-the-clock patrolling, complaints, investigations, emergencies and law-and-order duties with limited manpower.
