Govt mulling commercial exploitation of police station land

Nagpur, Nov 28 (UNI) The government is exploring the possibility of using excess land, attached to police stations, in the state for commercial purposes, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil told the Maharashtra Legislative Council today.

Replying to an half-hour discussion, initiated by Leader of the Opposition Pandurang Phundkar, Mr Patil said the commercial exploitation of the land could be one of the ways of raising money for upgrading the police infrastructure in Maharashtra.

Since 2000, the government had spent Rs 840 crore for modernising the police force, Mr Patil said. Under this programme, 3,445 vehicles had been replaced with new ones and 4,446 new vehicles had been purchased, he said. An amount of Rs 100 crore is available this year for the purpose, he said.

The government had decided to recruit 11,000 personnel in the force every year so that the shortage of 55,000 personnel, as concluded by a committee of experts, could be removed, Mr Patil said. New police stations would be set up after the completion of the recruitment process, Patil said.

The government would no longer allow police chowkies to be built through sponsorships, Mr Patil said, adding that sponsors were using police chowkies for commercial advertisements. Henceforth, the government itself would build the chowkies, he added.

Earlier, the House was adjourned for ten minutes, as no cabinet minister was present in the House when the first half-hour discussion was initiated.

UNI