GUWAHATI: With the intention to make police stations more people-friendly and treat visitors in a disciplined and polite manner, police stations across the city will soon be provided with comprehensive reception desks. A total of 47 receptionists, who happen to be women constables, have undergone special training on how to handle visitors and will be directly reporting to their respective officers-in-charge.
The constables underwent two days of training for the program on July 9-10. They were trained in soft skills by Anjan Choudhury of the Indian Skills Academy while Indrani Phukan, the head of Public Relations at Vivanta by Taj, Guwahati trained them in public relations. Further, officials of the Guwahati city police, including Ponjit Dowarah, ACP Jalukbari, Inspector Dilip Bharali, officer-in-charge of Fatasil Ambari and Inspector Biren Ch Deka, officer-in-charge of Chandmari, familiarised the constables with the functioning of a police station and the police commissionerate. Additionally, Ranjan Bhuyan, DCP Central, Mousumi Kalita, Assistant Commissioner of Police (women unit) and Diganta Barua, Joint Commissioner of police taught the women how to communicate differently with different stakeholders of the public.
There are a total of 20 police stations that fall under Guwahati Police District and to begin with, five stations have been equipped with the reception desks. Gradually, all the stations will get full-fledged reception desks.
The test phase began in five police stations namely Dispur, Fatasil Ambari, Pan Bazaar, Bharalumukh and Jalukbari on July 12, Thursday. “During the first test phase, 15 constables have been assigned duties – three at each of the stations. The rest of the constables will also be assigned their duties once the stations get equipped with the infrastructure,” informed Mousumi Kalita while speaking to G Plus.
She further added that while two batches of constables have been trained, a third batch is yet to undergo training. Apart from getting apprised of the functioning of the police stations and handle the help desks, these constables may also be taken for cases by the officer-in-charge.
The registration desks/help desks are expected to be officially inaugurated by Director General of Police, IPS Kuladhar Saikia sometime in the coming week.
The help desks being set up at the police stations are expected to fight the negative public perception towards police behaviour. The objective is to achieve better connectivity with the public by providing assistance to all complainants and other individuals coming into the stations. It is a kind of single window system for visitors to the police station to not feel uncomfortable during their visit which is expected to be open round the clock soon.