Why make us drive Hoysalas: Bengaluru police constables

Bengaluru: While the recently launched 222 hi-tech Hoysala vehicles is a pride for Bengaluru police, the project has led to certain problems with the constables unwilling to take up Hoysala duty, especially to drive these new vehicles.

A constable attached to Jayanagar police station recently sent a suicide note through WhatsApp to his senior officers, accusing that their harassment had led him to take the extreme step, another constable in HSR Layout was suspended for not going for Hoysala duty and other charges. These two incidents have revealed that the constables in the city are reluctant to do Hoysala duty.

But what is the reason? A constable working in central division, on condition of anonymity, said, “Earlier, we used to patrol in the designated beats in our police station limits. Now, we are under the control of some unknown officer at the Command Centre. The inspector of the station where we work asks us to go for Hoysala duty. Once we go for the duty, everything will be controlled by the Command Centre. We have to stay in a single location for four hours and most of the times we won’t be having any work. And, it’s really boring. If we go on rounds at least we can keep watch on what is happening in our jurisdiction. If we are stationed at a designated place, we have to attend to cases, which has no concern to our station.”

Another staff in the South division, “We are being asked to get driving licence though we are not interested in it. We used to approach our inspector to get leaves earlier. Now, we have to ask the official concerned in the command centre. We are not able get accustomed to the new system.”

Further, a police inspector in the West division said that the City Armed Reserve, which allocates driving staff, was taking many senior drivers back. “There are less drivers among the civil policemen. The situation is such that we are not able to depute men for Cheetah patrolling bikes, as we have to post 10-15 staff everyday for Hoysala duty in shifts. Also, many people in our jurisdiction call us directly instead of Dial 100 in case of emergencies. As we do not have control over Hoysala now, it will take us time to mobilise vehicles.”

Head constable suspended
A police head constable, who refused to drive a new Hoysala vehicle assigned by police inspector, has been suspended on Thursday. The head constable, Satish, attached with HSR Layout police station was suspended by DCP Boralingaiah on Thursday and an inquiry was ordered.

According to police, Satish was transferred to Parappana Agrahara police station. But using his influence he had got orders to stay back in HSR Layout police station crime wing. He was assigned to be the driver of new Hoysala vehicle, but Satish refused to take up the assigned work saying that he did not know driving and said he would remain in crime wing.

He also got into a fight with the police inspector Victor Simon and had misbehaved with him. The police inspector has complained with the senior officials. Based on the report, Satish was suspended. Police said there were several complaints from the public against Satish.