FG Night Inspection

  • Abhishek Behl / FG
  • India
  • Jan 16, 2015


Photo: Prakhar Pandey

The presence of a Policeman on the streets is not only reassuring for the common man, but is also a great deterrent to miscreants and criminals who are out on the streets looking for prey. In a city like Gurgaon, which has a large floating population and porous borders with Delhi, Faridabad and ‘notorious’ Mewat, the presence of the Police on the roads, particularly during the nights, is critical for the prevention of crime. And of course it does give the citizens a feeling of security and ‘comfort’. Currently, with the national capital on high alert upto January 26 (especially with Obama in town), Gurgaon should remain very vigilant too. It had also been expected that with a new government at the helm and a new administration having taken charge in Gurgaon, things would change for the better…even on the roads. To assess the situation ‘live’, as in earlier years, a Friday Gurgaon team visited different parts of the City on Wednesday night (between 10pm and 1am). Up front: there continues to be limited (even less than before) Police presence in the City, and at many places the Police pickets and nakas - the checkpoints – were unmanned. The good news is that Gurgaon Police is still serious about preventing drunk driving, and teams of the Traffic Police were present at two key points to check motorists. However, it is surprising that while Delhi Police has posted a PCR at key entry points (into Delhi) from the ‘old’ Gurgaon side, there is little or no checking of people entering Gurgaon. Maybe the Gurgaon Police is now becoming more oriented to basically acting on intelligence inputs, as the new Police Chief told Friday Gurgaon (FG) in a recent interview.
He had maintained that he believed more in taking ‘smart’ action rather than, say, putting some extra force at the nakas.  

At 10.10pm the check post on the Palam Vihar road that leads to Bijwasan was empty, and the room that serves as a Police chowki was locked. In the dark, cold night it was the barricades that were doing duty….not Policemen. There was also no Police presence on the other road that goes from Palam Vihar to Bijwasan via Ansal Plaza. There is normally a Police gypsy stationed in front of the Ansal Plaza Mall, but that too was missing. May be it was taking a round of the colony. Rajesh Kumar, who was standing on the road for a lift from a cab, as is his usual practice, told Friday Gurgaon that Police presence on this road remains thin, though there is checking sometimes. "We would like that at least a motorcycle team is posted here during the night hours, so that those on the road feel secure," said Kumar. At Kapashera the scene changed dramatically. The new IT hub at Dundahera was alive with activity. There were cabs all around, each trying to overtake the other. Many young men were having tea, rolls and other snacks at the kiosks outside one of the IT buildings. Surprisingly, no girls could be seen. It is only when the FG Team stepped out to talk to the youth we see a number of girls asking for food and tea from inside the grill; they are not allowed to venture out of the gates. One of the girls lamented that their freedom had been curbed, because the companies want to play very safe. An employee of an IT company said that there little problem in the area, particularly as the girls stayed inside the complex; miscreants did not turn up here.  There was not a Policeman visible from Dundahera upto the Kapashera U-turn. A large number of industrial workers, including women, were seen moving in the area, having finished their work the factories, 

Across the toll plaza on NH8 there were a large number of trucks waiting to enter Delhi, but there was no presence of Police at the point as well. As soon as we entered Delhi, we found two Police vehicles with their lights blinking, and the Police officers were checking vehicles. On return to Gurgaon we finally spotted a PCR vehicle parked on the side of the road, close to Ambience Mall. It was reassuring to see that at least two Policemen were keeping an eye on the road. Further down, at around 11.10pm, a team of Gurgaon Traffic Police, headed by ASIs Balwan Singh and Balraj Singh, was checking drunken driving. ASI Balwan Singh told Friday Gurgaon, "We carry out this drive on three days of the week. However, during the fortnight from December 20 to January 5, we checked people every night.” The Police officials said that it is very difficult sometimes to stop drunk drivers, many of whom are bent upon running away, and are even willing to hit the Policemen in the process. They will perhaps be better served by the proposed new barricades, which are being given to Gurgaon Police by some corporates, under their CSR programs. The Police team is able to check about 200 car drivers every night. A learning from this activity is that while the checking must remain focused on drunk driving, maybe the Police personnel should also question the people and check for any suspicious activity. At the famed 24x7 Cyber City, there was surprisingly no police patrol or even a motorcycle rider. The petrol pump and thekas were doing brisk business. Moving towards MG Road and Bio-diversity Park, we hoped to find some Police, as last year a team was found checking cars under the Dronacharya Metro  station… but alas here too the  Police were invisible. Only while returning to Gurgaon did we find a small team of three to four standing outside the Police chowki, with a Police car standing close by. Here also, even at the broder, the focus was less on checking and more on drunken driving - though the Police presence at least gives some confidence to the common man. A vendor on the roadside said that it is reassuring that the Police is present on the roads, and this can be of great help to people in distress. Even at the long-under-construction Golf Course Road, close to midnight, there was little Police presence. The cab drivers were having a free run from Sikanderpur to Sector 56. Thankfully, there were four armed Policemen from the  Sushant Lok 1 Police Station, under ASI Ramnivas, posted on the road that goes from DLF Phase 5  to Paras Hospital. The weather was very cold, and the Policemen looked weary, but they smiled when we approached them. ASI Ramnivas told FG that they regularly carry out random checking on this stretch, to keep a watch on people entering the City from this side. A vehicle can almost directly enter this area from Faridabad, Sohna or Delhi. Onwards to MG Road, a key commercial hub and a potential crime hotspot of the City, since it harbours a number of nightclubs. The Gurgaon Police had a creditable strength on this stretch; a PCR van, along with women staff, could be spotted in front of Sahara Mall. Just ahead, a strong posse of policemen had barricaded the road, in order to check drunk drivers. The Police incharge, Raj Singh, told FG that around 200 cars are checked during every drive. This kind of checking however is dangerous work, as a number of drivers, particularly those having large cars, could be seen swerving and driving away fast, in a bid to avoid the Police. Singh said that one of their staff members had almost been crushed when he had tried to stop a vehicle. Moving on, there was a lone police vehicle that could be spotted on the road from HUDA City Centre to Wazirabad. It was parked on the side, and two men could be seen lazing on the back seat. At Unitech Cyber Park there was a checkpoint on the right side of the road, where four Policemen could be seen, huddled. They seemed to want the duty hours to be over soon. There was no further presence of Policemen till Subhash Chowk; last year there was a team posted just ahead of Cyber Hub. Surprisingly, there was no checkpost or Police team manning the crucial stretch of Sohna Road from Subhash Chowk to Badshahpur. In fact the traffic post at Badshahpur Chowk was unmanned. Moving back towards Rajiv Chowk, one of the most important intersections in the City, we spotted four to five Policemen checking vehicles as they exited the City towards the National Highway. The entry to Civil Lines, an important part of the City, was unmanned.  ‘Old’ Gurgaon clearly is not a priority even for the Police – they just were not present anywhere. And finally back to Palam Vihar - where there was a Police gypsy parked on the side of the road, at 1am. 

Against an expectation of more, there is actually less Police presence in the City now – that too at night, and in winter. May be there has been a change in strategy, or the threat perception is different this year – though surely it should be more, not less. Maybe the non-sanctioning of extra manpower (for years) has made the Police finally change tack. But all this could finally impact us, the citizens. It is important to also remember that the Millennium City witnesses a lot more ‘night’ activity than even Delhi, and there have been serious crimes committed here. Bottom line: the Gurgaon Police have to be seen more on the roads – and especially at night. Surely we don’t want a Millennium City to one day shut shop at dusk!

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