NEW DELHI: If you read this, you would think that India is still in the bullock cart age.

There are 950 police stations that do not have any vehicle. Of these 764 are in Andhra Pradesh, 98 in Chhattisgarh, 41 in Madhya Pradesh, 13 in Manipur, 20 in Uttar Pradesh and three in Mizoram.

The average availability of transport resources to the police personnel in 35 States and Union Territories is very meagre to a total strength of civil and armed police force in States that now totals to 15.30 lakh personnel.

This data was released by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in its report "Data on Police Organisations in India as on January 1, 2005."

"Out of touch" stations

Similarly, as many as 4,463 police stations have only telephones and 4,132 police stations only wireless sets. Police stations, numbering 9,645, have both wireless and telephone facilities. Still 241 police stations have neither a telephone nor a wireless set.

Of these "out of touch" police stations, 143 are in Uttar Pradesh, 78 in Jharkhand, 11 in Manipur and two in Chhatisgarh, the report said.

Lack of vehicles and communication facilities not only hamper the mobility of police forces but also make them vulnerable to several factors, including operational aspects. This at a time when expenditure on police forces is going up with each passing year. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra top the list with over Rs. 2,100 crore expenditure during 2004-05.

Representation of SCs

The average representation of Scheduled Castes (SCs) in police forces was 9.8 per cent as on January 1, 2005. The highest representation of 37.3 per cent was in Daman and Diu, followed by 20.2 per cent in Uttaranchal and 19.6 per cent in Himachal Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, representation of SCs in police force was 15.2 per cent and in U.P. it was 15 per cent, the report said.

On the other hand, average representation of Scheduled Tribes (STs) was 5.9 per cent, with the highest representation of 90.8 per cent being in Nagaland, followed by 54.5 per cent and 57.6 per cent respectively by the tiny territories of Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep.

Among the bigger States, representation of STs in U.P. police was 1.4 per cent, West Bengal 3.7 per cent and in Tamil Nadu 0.7 per cent, said the report.

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