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Severe shortage of vehicles hits CMP

Tarek Mahmud, ctg
With a mere 25 percent of the required number of vehicles available, Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) is having a hard time fighting crime in the city.
The lack of vehicles is forcing the around 5,000-personnel CMP to cut short its patrolling and policing activities, prompting criminal activities to spiral in many areas.
Police often cannot immediately respond to complaints and reach the scene of a crime on time due to the shortage of vehicles. Sometimes they do not attend to complaints at all.
Moreover, a number of the available vehicles remain out of order most of the time.
CMP has 292 vehicles out of the required 991. These include jeeps, microbuses, pickup vans, saloon cars, ambulances, prison vans, buses, trucks, wreckers, riot vans and motorcycles, said CMP Officer-in-Charge (Motor) Siddiqur.
Altogether 27 five-door sports utility vehicles (SUV) are required by the CMP commissioner, two additional commissioners, 10 deputy commissioners and 14 additional deputy commissioners. But there are only 12 available, said CMP sources.
The required number of microbuses is 38, meant for Detective Branch (DB), City Special Branch (CSB), the control room, 12 police stations, the traffic department, immigration services and reserve forces. However, there are only eight in operation.
Only 52 pickup vans, against the required 77, are available for 17 assistant commissioners, 12 police stations, DB, CSB, the traffic department and reserve forces.
Besides, six saloon cars, three ambulances, four 40-seat prison vans, 12 buses and mini buses, four wreckers, two riot vans and 574 motorcycles -- 10 with an engine size of 350 cc and 564 of 125 cc --are needed, the sources said.
But CMP is maintaining law and order and ensuring security to city dwellers with only four cars, two ambulances, two prison vans, three buses, two wreckers, one riot van and 170125cc motorcycles.
CMP sources said that of the available vehicles, four SUVs, seven pickup vans, one ambulance and 22 motorcycles remain out of order most of the time.
Moreover, 430 posts were recently created in CMP, deepening the crisis over vehicles, added the sources.
Bandar Police Station OC Nurul Absar Bhuiyan said, “Renting vehicles is a hassle and a waste of valuable resources. We cannot reach our destination on time during drives and criminals get away.’’
The OC cited a June 20 incident when garment workers became violent after a colleague of theirs died in a road accident in front of Banani Complex under Double Mooring Police Station.
“Seven policemen were injured as reserve forces failed to reach the spot on time,” he said.
OC Mohammad Mafiz Uddin of Khulshi Police Station said, “There were incidents where police impersonators in civil vehicles robbed people. People feel uneasy and confused when we approach them in civil vehicles.”
Each police station has to rent four vehicles every day to patrol their respective areas in two shifts, said CMP Assistant Commissioner (Headquarters) Abdul Mannan.
“We have to pay Tk 2,850 for each vehicle and Tk 100 to the driver,” said CMP Deputy Commissioner (Headquarters) Banaj Kumar Majumder.
Covering hartals, national days, political processions and religious occasions requires another Tk 1.5 lakh per day in renting vehicles.
Mohammad Selim, a contractor who can supply up to 15 vehicles a day, said, “It is difficult to manage additional vehicles on an urgent basis.”
CMP Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam said, “We have already informed the police headquarters about our vehicle shortage and we hope that the problem will go away in due time."
Assistant Inspector General of Equipment and Transport (Headquarters) Md Shafiqul Islam said, “The allocation comes from the home ministry and we are trying to mitigate the problem.”