Maintenance officers find little time for upkeep of police quarters

One of the primary reasons for this seems to be the lack of a proper maintenance officer. Residents are reluctant to take up the responsibility and several blamed one another for the currents status of the quarters. A number of police personnel residing in different quarters whom DT Next spoke to complained that the officers entrusted to oversee the maintenance are hardly available as they are burdened with work at their stations.

A constable, who did not want to be named, said, “From each police station, one officer is asked to oversee the maintenance of police quarters within their jurisdiction. They are called the line in-charge. They are supposed to listen to the grievances of residents of the quarters and take it up with higher officials for solutions. But the officers, rarely visits the quarters as they are usually busy with other duties. The line in-charge would, however, be sent to attend the review meeting every fortnight with senior officials.”

On the other hand, a few other constables complained that funds for maintenance are not disbursed properly because the line in-charge officers have not been able to convey the grievances to the authorities concerned through a proper channel. An officer who lives in Gopalapuram police quarters said, “We can handle small matters by ourselves like we have hired a man to sweep the quarters and fix small electrical issues, but for bigger problems such as deepening of borewells, it becomes difficult to wait till the funds get allocated. 

So the expenses for the work was borne by the residents. The line in-charge should have taken care of these tasks.” “What’s more, it has been eight years since our quarters was built and we do not even have a compound wall yet. This leads to tress-passing and often people from neighbouring buildings parks their cars within the premises of the quarter,” added the officer. He also said that even though authorities have visited the spot several times, but nothing has been done so far to solve the problem.

Another grievance that the residents have arises from sub-inspectors and inspectors living in units meant for constables and head constables. A policeman complained, “There are more number of constables and head constables in the state than officers of higher rank. So, ideally the authorities should prioritise on providing units to the constables, but instead, several quarters meant for constables is allotted to sub-inspectors and inspectors. What makes matters worse is that the senior officers who live seem to expect us to treat them the same way we would at the stations.” 

“This has been happening despite some units meant for inspectors are lying vacant after the officers either bought their own houses or stay away on rent using their House Rent Allowance (HRA).” 

While the department could accommodate only about 9,000 of more than 24,000 personnel in police quarters, those who own a house in the city still apply for a unit in the quarters and sublet it to others under the pretext of accommodating their family or relatives. “We have sent petitions to the officers to vacate the premises, but have not received any response,” said a source from the department. 

In some cases, officers who are transferred to other districts retain their quarters, and thus, officers who need a shelter are forced to rent a house on their own.  An officer who retained the rented quarters was inspector Sampath Kumar. In September, the CBI while investigating the Gutkha scam in Tamil Nadu, raided and sealed Kumar’s house in Singarathoppu police quarters. The officer had not vacated the unit even after he was transferred to Thoothukudi a long time ago.

Meanwhile, speaking about their role in maintaining the quarters, officials from Tamil Nadu Housing Corporation (TNPHC) said that they are the only agency authorised to build quarters for the department and that repairs are carried out based on recommendation by the DGP office. “The complaints are received by officers and submitted to the DGP office which forwards them to us depending upon the urgency,” said an official.

“It would, however, be fair on part of the residents to address minor problems by themselves instead of waiting for the department to fix it because the houses being allocated to police personnel are not in any way inferior to privately-owned buildings,” he added.

When contacted, officials in the city police commissionerate responsible to address the grievances presented a different perspective. “We have a WhatsApp group for line in-charges who post grievances of different police quarters and also details of how they have been rectified with photo evidence. They also conduct health camps. So, it is not fair to say that line in-charges are not available,” said an official. “A lot of such problems can be resolved only if the residents cooperate with each other. We are also encouraging formation of welfare associations for this purpose,” he added.

Citing an example, the official said, “Nariyankadu police quarters near Chintadripet is regularly cleaned by conservancy workers. But, the backyard gets filled with trash within a week and it just shows lack of responsibility among residents. For line-in charge officers, maintenance is an additional responsibility and as such, they cannot be expected to clean backyards of police quarters.”

The official, however, agreed that subletting of quarters has been a problem. “Every year, we detect up to four cases and seize the houses from the personnel concerned. We also conduct surprise checks to detect such cases. Also, policemen are given four months to vacate their houses in case they are transferred elsewhere. But some try to keep the houses hoping that they would return to Chennai soon,” he said.

When it comes to accommodating all the personnel in quarters, the official said that since the buildings being constructed now are up to 10-storey high and would accommodate more numbers. “Currently, there are around 8,000 units in 90 quarters for 24,000 police personnel, which is allotted in terms of the officers’ seniority. Apart from this, officers who have serious health ailments are also given priority,” the official said.

“In fact, transpeople who joined the department were also allotted houses since it may be difficult for them to find houses otherwise. And, we will be able to meet at least half the demand for houses by 2020. Also, under the ‘Own Your House’ scheme the TNPHC has been building houses for the police in Melakottaiyur and more and more officers have opting for it,” he added.

When police officers are  posted in Chennai, they should make a formal request for allocation of quarters in their names. Their request will be fed in the waiting list and whenever a police quarters is vacated, it will be allocated to the person who is next in the line. Until the police personnel get a house in the police quarters, the department gives them  House Rental Allowance. In exceptional cases in which the police personnel has been diagnosed with chronic ailments or if the personnel is a transgender, they are given houses on priority basis.