SOLAN: The police in this area was fighting a lost battle against uncontrolled phone bills. In fact the deficit in budgeted amount and actual bills has put police force in tight spot. It was really a catch-22 situation for cops who on other have strict instructions from top to cut down the landline phone costs while on other side it was virtual impossible for them to control the things.
Usually to fill bill deficit the staff at police stations has to pool anything between Rs. 100 to 150 from their own pockets, pointed out a cop seeking anonymity. Though a new plan of BSNL that offers free call between police stations have helped to cut down the deficit by Rs. 1000. But yet the bill was quite high despite taking all measures to reduce the cost, he rued.
Inquires revealed that in some cases the phone bills were even three times the limit. A random survey of police stations showed that the matter has emerged as major de-motivation factor for police. The bills for two months were ranging between Rs. 3000 to 5000 as against the budget of Rs. 1700 to 2500. The phone budget depended on the location of police stations. The police stations on national highway get more budgets for telephone expenses as compare to the others police stations.
Denying any possibility of personal use of official phone a police personnel asserted that the most of police staff has their own cellphone now, so there was no question of using official phone.
