Women's police stations to close

The ones at Ulsoor Gate and Basavanagudi may soon be shut down, owing to an overall lack of officers around other police stations

The women's police stations at Ulsoor Gate and Basavanagudi may soon be shut down. The reasons given: every police station has women police officers, and the fact that these stations are centrally located, women complainants from far-off places such as Electronic City shy away from coming there.


Time's up! According to Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari, the
decision to shut off the police stations was taken after a thorough
research.u00a0Basavangundi police station.u00a0 Pic/Satish Badiger

The decision will be soon finalised after a high level meeting of the top cops.u00a0Commissioner Shankar Bidari said that he wants to shut off these stations after a thorough research. He added that we would transfer affected officers to other stations that have vacancies.

Too far
But some junior officers shared different opinions, saying that this will decrease the number of inspectors in city, and will restrict women officers attending only harassment cases, since most women shy away from filing such complaints from male officers.

Bidari said, "Women police stations more than 30 years ago. At that time, all police stations didn't have women cops in police stations. Now every station has women cops who attend to such complaints. The two stations are located in central part of the city, sou00a0 most women don't bother coming so far. To avoid this problem, we have to transfer and increase the number of woman cops in every police station."

Not enough officers
However, the fact is that many police stations still don't have sufficient women officers. The police station at Vaiyalikaval doesn't have a sub-inspector level officer till today. Otheru00a0 stations also don't have enough women police personnel.

Bidari added, "In coming days we will appoint enough women to regulate a better administration. If people have a complaint our junior officers can't handle, our top cops will take up the matter. We'll come to a decision soon."

An officer said that closing these stations would decrease the inspector level police officers, and lead to a drop in the complaint rate. Another officer who didn't wish to be names said, " Normally, women shy away from filing cases because they are not comfortable talking to a male officer. I don't think it's a good idea." Ulsoor Gate PI Anjumala T Nayak said, " I'll do what my senior officers will order me to."

1976 The year both police stations came into operation

51 Combined number of employees in the police stations