CHARSADDA: The police performance and patrolling have badly been affected after the government cut fuel by 35 per cent to public departments as part of the austerity drive to overcome the financial crunch.
A mobile police van is being provided 1.5 litres on daily basis, which is not enough for the vehicle to conduct patrol in the vast area of a specific police station.The crimes are feared to increase as the police have stopped patrolling in most of the areas in various police stations for lack of fuel.
When contacted, District Police Officer Sohail Khalid said that Charsadda had become a sensitive district due to the presence of Chinese nationals working on various projects.He said they had apprised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of police of the situation in writing to increase fuel for the vehicles in police stations so that they could carry out patrolling in respective areas to ensure maintaining of law and order in the district.
It may be mentioned here that a police station used to get 540 litres of fuel for a month but it has now been decreased to 351 litres following the 35 per cent cut.There are a total of 111 vehicles, including 56 mobile vans, five double-cabin vehicles, three armoured personnel carriers, two prison vans, two trucks, one bus, a pick-up van and ambulance and 38 motorcycles under the use of force.