Bengaluru: Many of us have seen and heard of lethargic cops who are reluctant to even take up complaints and often send the complainants on long hauls from one police station to another, disputing their jurisdictions… Here’s a different sort of lethargy. There are a few cops who do tomorrow’s duties well in advance on the day itself, so that they not only have enough time to relax for the rest of the week, but also their ‘targets’ are met, which of course gets the approval of their seniors!
The Talakudu police of the Mysuru district of the Southern range have been issuing post-dated and blank-dated receipts for vehicular offences to adjust them with their weekly and monthly targets by putting their own fictitious dates. “The police wrote out a ticket for me for not wearing a driver’s uniform and the receipt was dated August 10th, while the actual date was 9th,” said Mahesh, the driver of a Tempo Traveler who had ferried a tourist family to Shivanasamudra and Talakadu from Bengaluru on Sunday.
“My ticket and receipt had no date at all and I was booked for not having a pollution emission certificate for my brand-new vehicle,” said another driver, adding, “as far as I know, for two years after purchase, a new vehicle does not require an emission certificate.
Scores of drivers of tourist vehicles who had parked their vehicles at the parking lots after dropping off tourists at the Gaganachukki, Bharachukki waterfalls and the historic desert-like town of Talakudu, were not only puzzled as to why the dates in their receipts were either wrong or missing, but were also startled about why the police have been so hard-working on a Sunday evening – “actually catching tourists on a narrow kaccha road leading to these tourist spots!”
They confirmed the misuse of dates on receipts, when a few policemen arrived at the parking lots and asked the drivers to return their receipts so that they could change the dates and re-issue them. The smart drivers turned down the cops’ request and told them that they were not ‘interested’ in having the correctly dated receipts as it was done deliberately by the cops for reasons best known to them and they sent the men in khaki away.
“The Talakudu police work hard on weekends, so that they have time to relax on weekdays,” quipped a driver who frequents the tourist spots often.
The higher-ups in the police are not amused. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, the circle inspector of T. Narasipura under whom the Talakudu police station falls said, “I will inquire with my men in Talakudu police station and if they are found guilty of this mischief, disciplinary action will be taken against them.”
