Ditto in three other railway police stations due to bill payment defaults. This means WE can't make emergency calls to the police and THEY can't call hospitals or follow-up on accident cases.
Ditto in three other railway police stations due to bill payment defaults. This means WE can't make emergency calls to the police and THEY can't call hospitals or follow-up on accident cases.
In what has to be a record of sorts, a crucial government office has been disconnected from the outside world for three years because of sheer laziness on the part of some babus. The office of Assistant Commissioner of Police (Railway) Vasai Division D G Shinde has been left without the basic amenity of a phone due to the non-payment of a paltry bill of Rs 226!
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Saving grace: ACP (Railway) D G Shinde at the Borivli railway police station is forced to use the intra-railway phone as the white MTNL phone is disconnected. Pic/Narendra Dangiya |
Inquiries conducted by MiD DAY revealed that the phone line was disconnected for non-payment of dues for the month of March 2006. The payment is supposed to be made by the pay and accounts department at the Railway Commissioner's office.
Shinde, who took charge as the supervisory officer for three major railway police stations (Borivli, Vasai and Palghar) six months ago, has brought the inconvenience to the notice of his superiors in writing and verbally.
But Shinde's complaints, like those of his predecessors, have fallen on deaf ears.
He has to completely rely on his mobile phones for outside communication and the railway phone line (which is an intra-railway communication system) for internal communication.
Not alone
But Shinde is not the only police officer bearing the brunt of bureaucratic apathy. The Andheri, Vasai Road and Dombivli railway police stations are facing the same problem.
Dead phone
The phone at the Andheri railway police station has been dead for the past few months due to non-payment of bills. The situation only got worse for the policemen when they had to probe the death of Bharat Borge, the man who found pebbles and gravel in the gear box of Anil Ambani's helicopter.
The cops had to use their mobile phones without any hope of reimbursement.
The phone at Vasai Road was also disconnected some months ago.
The Dombivili railway station will soon join the league of disconnected railway police stations.
The service provider has already barred outgoing calls for non-payment of a bill of about Rs 935. The incoming calls facility will also get disconnected soon.
Government Railway Police Commissioner A K Sharma is on leave. DCP (Central) Vasant Koregaonkar, the acting in-charge, said,u00a0 "I have just learnt about this problem, I will look into the issue and get it resolved as soon as possible."
'Like other users'
J Gopal, executive director, MTNL (Mumbai Circle), said, "We have already provided free emergency service numbers like 100, 103, etc, but the police are like other customers.
They have to pay for the phone connections. However, if the commissioner writes to us for an extension
to the payment deadline without disconnecting the line, we may consider the request."
Wrong numberThe Dadar Crime Branch (railway) has a phone problem of a different nature. Most of the calls to their landline come from people enquiring about their Rural Electric Corporation (REC) bonds.
Said a crime branch officer, "On an average, we receive four to five calls everyday for REC. The landline is of no use, as there is a problem with the instrument and we can barely hear anything.
We have no option but to use our mobile phones."
