'Tambu chowkis' fade into history

VADODARA: 'Tambu Chowkis' - a system introduced over three decades ago in the city police - has faded into history. The city police have wound up such outposts and instead deployed State Reserve Police (SRP) personnel on patrolling vehicles.
'Tambu Chowkis' were outposts erected in tents in communally-sensitive areas of the city. Four SRP personnel were deployed in each outpost and they took turns in exercising vigil with each one of them on duty outside the outpost for two hours even as others remained inside the tent.The personnel had to stay in tent and even bathe and wash their clothes at places around it with water they borrowed from residents of the area.
Four SRP personnel have now been deployed inside a police control room (PCR) van that patrols the area where the outposts were erected. They work on eight-hour shifts following which four others replace them.
"This will enable them to keep a vigil in the entire locality and they can rush to a trouble spot immediately. They can also contact the control room with the communication equipment in the patrol vehicle," said police commissioner Satish Sharma.
The system of doing away with the tents will also ensure that the dignity of the men in uniform remains intact. They will no longer have to bathe and wash clothes in public view. They can now do so on the premises where their company is camping.
The city had 43 such outposts that had been erected in eight police station precincts. Most of these were located in the City, Wadi, Panigate and Karelibaug police stations that have communally-sensitive pockets.
Sharma said that the four SRP personnel in each patrol vehicle will be accompanied by a head constable or assistant sub-inspector besides the driver of the vehicle. The city police have recently been allocated new patrol vehicles by the state government.