Flower Bazaar, Adyar short of cops, says RTI

According to the reply given under RTI, the vacancies in Flower Bazaar include one officer each in the rank of Assistant Commissioner and inspector, 33 sub-inspectors and 393 other lower grade staff.

Flower Bazaar, one of the 12 police districts in Greater Chennai Police, is also the largest in the Chennai-North region comprising 12 police stations, including Esplanade, Flower Bazaar, Elephant Gate, Seven Wells, Kothavalchavadi and Muthialpet. With the Madras High Court, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, the habour and Parry’s Corner, the trade hub, coming under its purview, the district is, in fact, in need of more police personnel to carry out the regular duties.

In South Chennai, the Adyar police district is short by 263 police personnel compared to the sanctioned strength. This includes five inspectors, 17 sub-inspectors and 241 personnel of other ranks such as head constables and constables. The RTI query was filed by Y Akbar Ahmed, a city-based activist.

When contacted, an officer of Deputy Commissioner rank said many police personnel do not want to work in Flower Bazaar, Triplicane, Mylapore and Adyar districts due to workload and seek transfer to other police districts.

“Police personnel in Flower Bazaar would be required to report for continuous shifts due to bandobust duties, whereas in Triplicane, police personnel have to be on their toes as various protests are held in Chepauk almost every day. Similarly, Mylapore is a VIP area, while Adyar district comprises police stations like Semmanchery and Kannagi Nagar, which are far from the city. So, police personnel who are posted in these districts would opt for transfer after a few months and go to other police districts where the workload is comparatively less,” said the officer on condition of anonymity.