Criminals will have to wait as police must first deal with filth in their own colony

Karachi

Sewage water accumulated on roads, streets littered with garbage, and reeking of foul smell – that sums ups the Police Line area; an example of how powerless the police force is when it comes to protecting their families from inconveniences and diseases in their own residential colony.

Built for the families of the counter-terrorism department, the traffic police and other police departments, Police Line is located along the Garden police station, near the Jubilee Cloth Market.

“One can ascertain the very basic difference between Rangers and the police by visiting the residential colonies of the latter and observing their maintenance systems,” said a police official who lives in Police Line – a colony with 1,200 houses.

“As sewage water is inundating roads and streets, it is even difficult to move in and out of the colony,” he added.

“My son asks me why despite being a police officer I can’t even have the colony I live in cleaned.”

The officer said over 10,000 people live in the area and around Rs. 5 million are allocated every year for its maintenance.

“The maintenance fund is not utilized properly, resulting in severe mismanagement and causing inconvenience to the families of the police officers,” he maintained.

 “The new chief minister looks committed to ridding the city of filth and garbage, and the colony residents are hoping that he will look into the issues of Police Line as well.”

Officers complained that the sweepers hired for the colony do not perform their duties.

“Around 100 sweepers are paid to clean the colony but most of them work privately and give money to higher officials. A very few of them work in the colony but only at the houses of police high-ups.”

Talking to The News, DSP Garden Muhammad Nawaz Khan said the gutter pipes in the colony were installed in 1950 and because of their dilapidated condition cannot maintain the flow of sewage.

 “It’s been around six years that I have been posted as a DSP. The residents of the colony also don’t cooperate when asked to collect money on their own and have the area cleaned.”

He said most residents raised their houses from the ground level because of which sewage water was flowing from their houses onto the streets.

Watch tower

A watch tower is being built at the colony gate over security reasons.

The police officer who lives in the colony said around Rs100 million was being spent to build the tower.

“This watch tower will help protect our families from attackers, but who would guard our families from germs and diseases? We are looking towards the new Sindh commander Murad Ali Shah,” said the police officer.