Mahila police station cleanest, Sabarmati the worst: Report

In a study by students of KS School of Business Management, Gujarat University, the Mahila police station in the city emerged as the cleanest from among 50 other stations. As part of an MoU between the city police and the university, the cleanliness project was initiated last year by cops.

The study spanned six months and the stations were ranked across categories including area outside the premises, the entrance and overall condition of the building. A total of 39 students worked on the project in two phases. The first phase involved a strategic visit and recommendations, while the second phase included a surprise visit. The survey was initiated to promote sanitization in police stations by awarding the top 10 stations.

Vastrapur Mahila West police station was ranked the cleanest among 50 stations followed by Danilimda, Khokhra, Shahibaug Mahila East. Others in the top 10 included Ranip, Airport, Vastrapur, Amraiwadi, Sarkhej and Naranpura. Sabarmati was the only police station in extremely unclean condition.

Speaking to DNA about the report, AK Singh, city police commissioner said, "Interestingly, some relatively new buildings were in bad shape, while some old buildings fared better. More than infrastructure and administrative issues, it's also about mindset; hence, the station head plays an important role."

"The major concern is seized property and record management. In most cases, due to court proceedings, these items have to be preserved for a long time. Then there are housekeeping issues, to deal with which, we will soon outsource the deep cleaning of police stations. We have also gotten approval for building new police stations," Singh added.

Among the police stations, 23 are in new buildings, 21 in old ones, five in rented buildings and one in a building that has been declared as condemned.

While among the top five police stations on the list, no changes were seen across the two phases, in Satellite police station, the level of cleanliness increased drastically, shifting its rank from 16th to sixth. Stations such as Vastrapur, Khokhra, Ranip, Sarkhej and Amraiwadi, deteriorated from phase 1.

The students said, "We found that the staff was overburdened so they were less concerned about cleanliness," Singh said.

A total of 13 police stations were found to not have enough number of dustbins on the premises while 16 stations' cleanliness improved.

The students' suggestions included providing sufficient space for keeping seized property, providing soft skill training to the staff, arrangement with AMC for taking away garbage and providing separate toilets for women.

TOP 10 POLICE STATIONS

• Vastrapur Mahila West
• Danilimda
• Khokhra
• Shahibaug Mahila East
• Ranip
• Airport
• Vastrapur
• Amraiwadi
• Sarkhej
• Naranpura