Villagers pool in funds, build police post

PATNA - Ashamed of the thatched hut where they had their police post, residents of a Bihar village pooled in money and built a two-storey building instead, officials said Monday.

People in Bariyarpur village in Muzaffarpur district, about 70 km from here, built the two-floor police post building by collecting money from the villagers. A total of Rs.300,000 was spent on the building, said Sambhu Prasad, a villager.

“The policemen were living in a thatched hut before the villagers donated money to construct the building,” Bhola Kumar Singh, officer in charge of the police post, told IANS on phone.

The villagers decided to build a police post on their own in a meeting last year. Bariyarpur comes under Sakra police station.

“We were ashamed of the police post in a thatched hut in the village and decided to build a proper one by collecting money,” said Dhanesh Kumar, a village council member.

Bhola Kumar Singh said that he had heard of people pooling in resources to build temples, mosques or other places of worship but this was the first time he had heard of villagers coming together to build a police post.

According to him, 20 policemen were deployed in the police post. “Now the policemen have a comfortable and secure living space to perform their duty,” Bhola Kumar Singh said.

The policemen shifted into the new building last week.

Sources in the police headquarters here said that hundreds of police stations and police posts across the state were in bad shape.

“Hundreds of them are functioning without their own buildings, others are in rented houses and some are in thatched huts,” a police official said.