Amid staff crunch, Mandrem to get new police station building

Mapusa: While work on a brand new building for the Mandrem police station will begin soon over 4,000sqm of land at Junaswada — complete with a fire station and a traffic cell — its staff crunch is yet to be resolved. The station is yet to get its own police control van (also known as a robot) too.

A police station was created in the coastal constituency of Mandrem in Jan last year to ease the immense pressure on the sole police station in the Pernem taluka that catered to the jurisdictions of 20 village panchayats and one municipal council. Prior to the setting up of the Mandrem police station, govt had carved out the Mopa airport police station to cater to the greenfield airport and villages in its vicinity.

However, while 11 villages of the constituency have been brought under the Mandrem police station, there are just 33 staff at the station, which hinders effective enforcement of law and order. Also, a single robot is shared by both the Mandrem and the Pernem police stations for half a day each, local MLA Jit Arolkar said.

“If an unnatural death case is registered at either of these police stations, the robot is utilised by the investigating officer concerned and is taken to the GMC. During such periods, there is no alternative patrol vehicle, which creates a great inconvenience,” Arolkar said. “Govt, however, is in the process of procuring 10 new police control vans, one of which will be allocated exclusively for the Mandrem police station,” he added.