HYDERABAD:
You would think a profound saying like that would find space in a counselling centre or a prayer hall. But it was on display at the Punjagutta Police Station. Not surprisingly, it won the award for being the second best police station in India, as per a survey conducted by the Quality Council of India and Ministry of Home Affairs.
“There are over 360 parameters that are taken into consideration before the ranking is done and we won second from amidst 16,000 entries (police stations) across the country,” informs Station House Officer (SHO) S Ravinder, who received the award on behalf of the police station at Tekanpur in Madhya Pradesh at the BSF Academy on January 6.
So what makes the Punjagutta Police Station get into the big league? “From citizen satisfaction to the operating procedures we follow, the latest cutting-edge technology in our day-to-day operations to work environment and the overall positive attitude of the staff, everything has contributed to it,” he adds.
The PS, which has a strength of 160 including 10 Sub Inspectors, follows the Japanese organisational workflow ‘5S’ to achieve maximum efficiency. “Any organisation that follows the 5S system (sort, set, sweep, standardise, sustain) is bound to yield results. This is a top management procedure that ensures that we carry out all our tasks – internal and those with interaction with the public – with no loss of time and things move from one stage to another, swiftly and
seamlessly.”
“Incidentally, you need not take our word for this. That we are efficient and effective has been corroborated by over 100 people (including the general public in the city) who shared their experience interacting with us with the third party agency which conducted the survey,” the SHO states. There is ample audio, video and documentary proof to support what the public said.
‘From questions such as how polite are the police at the Punjagutta Police Station’ to ‘Did your problem get effectively resolved without any delays’ were met with positive answers, he adds.
He and his team believe that their community outreach programmes such as Nenu Saitam, which encourages people to be part of the security measures in the city including installing CCTV cameras and informing them about crime around them, has worked in their favour. The police station also takes pride in its transparency. The number of cases reported, resolved, the crime rate and year-on-year data, etc. is displayed for the public. “We take the motto ‘People Friendly police, Telangana Police’ seriously.
The survey also takes into account the number of vehicles the police station has, the number of personnel involved in patrolling, the duties that the station does, besides its prime duty of taking care of law and order in the city. “We also have the additional responsibility of handling the security of the ministers and the VIPs in the city and despite being short-staffed, we have excelled in it,” states Ravinder who has been overseeing the operations since March 2017. The station also handles other 17 police verticals with Punjagutta as the hub.
The facility also has some of the amenities that some other police stations cannot even dream of – both for the common man and the staff. For example, they have a women helpdesk and a separate women waiting room, which very few stations have. For the staff, they have a state-of-the-art gym, a meditation centre, a library (with self-help books) as a stress-free zone. “What’s more, we also boast of a terrace garden, perhaps a rarity in police stations,” Ravinder says, as he deftly handles phone calls, mails, messages, instructions from seniors and briefs from his juniors, without getting flustered.
Encouraged by the award, the cops of the station are now looking forward to starting a new programme in 2018 – a counselling programme aimed at parents of teenagers. “We have dealt with teenage substance abuse and other such critical issues last year. It’s time we start with the parents to help the teens,” he adds.
We ask the parting question. So what do you think made Coimbatore race ahead of us?
“Telangana, as a state, is barely three years old. We will beat every other station shortly. Why only India, we are looking at being on par globally, with those in New York,” Ravinder signs off confidently.