Shifted to new police station, 30 villages oppose move

PATIALA: The unexplainable administrative decision of shifting 30 villages from the jurisdiction of Nabha Sadar police station to the one in Bakhshiwala has compounded the problems of thousands of villagers as they will have to travel a distance of 25-28 km to lodge a complaint.
The panchayats of many villages have passed resolutions and started protests to pressurize the government to scrap the notification.According to sources, some days back the Punjab government shifted 30 villages in Nabha sub division to Patiala rural area.
Punjab government has directed residents of these villages, including Rohte, Lubana, Ishewal, Rohti Maura, Rohta Basta Singh, Rohti, Rohti Channa, Pedhan, Pedhani, Shamla, Ajanauda Kala, Ajnauda khurd, Hiana kala, Hiana Khurd, that they will now have to approach Bakhshiwala police station if they want to lodge any complaint.
‘‘Nabha police station is just around 2-3 km away from our village while new one is 27 km away. We never asked anyone to bring our village under the area of another police station. We don't know why this has been done,’’ said Karnail Singh of Rohti village. The impact of this move is already evident. ‘‘Two days back when an accident took place near Rohti village, cops from Bakhshiwala took one hour to reach the site as they had to travel 27 km. Officers from Nabha police station, which is just 2 km away, could have reached the site within minutes," said Gamdoor Singh, who works in a private company at Nabha.
SHO Nabha Sadar police station Devinder Malhi said around 10 panchayats have submitted resolutions against the new notification. ‘‘We will forward these to Patiala deputy commissioner for action,’’ he said.