Published on Saturday
, September 08, 2007 at 01:04 in the Nation
section
Mumbai: Police posts in Mumbai
are breaking the law. More than 300 police posts
(beat chowkies) in the city have no sanction either
from the home department or the municipal
corporation.
Around 21 police posts have been built
from funds provided by builders and private
companies. That’s the startling fact Mumbai
resident Indur Kartar Chhugani got from the state
Home Ministry after filing a Right to Information
(RTI) application.
"These chowkies have been
constructed without BMC permissions and they do not
pay municipal tax. They steal power from nearby
shops, buildings or lamp-posts and many of them have
been funded by some builder or with someone with a
vested interest," says Chhugani.
The Home ministry has neither funded nor
given approval to any beat chowkie in Mumbai. No
information on approval received for these chowkies
from the municipal ward office.
Chhugani has filed a public interest
litigation before the Bombay high court that these
beat chowkies be demolished. "How will any
complaint ever get registered against these builders
or goons who sponsor these chowkies?" he says.