Malegaon police station: they fight terror with nine-hour power cuts

In fact, say the policemen deployed at the Azad Nagar Police Station, only half-jokingly, the station has remained the same since it was set up in 1965. With paint peeling off its walls, its doors and windows rotting, chairs rusted, tarpaulins holding up a leaking roof and nine-hour daily power cuts, the station — that doesn’t even have a name board — can barely accommodate half its staff, present at any given time.

The communally sensitive town in Nashik district last saw a bomb attack in September 2006 when three bicycle bombs had exploded at Bada Kabristan and Mushaira Chowk on the occasion of Shab-e-Baraat. 

“We are in charge of a sensitive area and are doing the best we can with the resources available to us,” says a stoic S J Patil, the Inspector in-charge of the station. 

That means keeping peace in a 12.94 sq km area — covering Devegaon, Malde and Savangaon — with 80 mosques and 26 temples, 1.68 lakh Muslims and 32,000 Hindus, with 104 policemen. Apart from Patil, the only other officers are four Sub-Inspectors, the rest all are constables.

While the Azad Nagar police station is spread over an area of about 2,000 sq ft, it has only six small rooms. When power goes — for at least nine hours daily — the policemen have no option but to sweat it out. “We use an inverter to power all the lights and the single computer, but the fans do not work,” says Sub-Inspector S B Patil. 

When it rains, it gets worse. Leaks in the old roof mean water drips onto documents and the precious solitary computer. In the evenings and night, the staff is left battling hordes of mosquitoes rather than fighting crime. 

“We have put tarpaulin sheets below the ceiling. The roof is in dire need of repair, but we don’t see when that will be possible,” says Head Constable Shiva Pardeshi.

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