HYDERABAD, Feb 19: The District Police Officer (DPO), Hyderabad, Moazam Jah Ansari, informed the Hyderabad district council here on Tuesday that under the new police system, resources of police had further been divided with the separation of investigation and prosecution branches.

He said that the police forces had to be withdrawn from different police pickets to adjust them in investigation teams.

He told the members that over the last four to five years the Hyderabad district alone had witnessed shortage of around 900 policemen and added that the finance department had abolished several vacancies.

The Hyderabad district council is the only council in Sindh where the DPO was called to respond to the queries of members on issues of law and order in the wake of a resolution tabled in the last session by Rana Mehmood Ali Khan.

The DPO said that efforts were being made to boost the present system under the existing resources.

The socio-economic condition of the society and joblessness were the root causes of lawlessness, he observed.

Regarding allocations of funds, he said that the district had not received any fund so far. The police force had occupied the quarters of the Postal Life and Railways due to lack of funds and resources.

There was no concept of leave for a police constable, he said.

The DPO said that the motorway police were comparatively getting attractive incentives and they had to work for just eight hours. The motorway police had no worry of diesel or petrol for their vehicles.

He said that if the same facilities were provided to the regular police force, the people would see a change in the efficiency and attitude of the police.

Meanwhile, the district council, Hyderabad, on the second consecutive day of its session, termed the efficiency of police as dismal. The members of the council said that cases of theft, motorcycle and car snatching and kidnappings were on the rise.

The house stressed the need for a close coordination and constant rapport between the elected members and police officials.

Calling for the presence of senior police officials in the session, it was stated in the resolution that implication of people in false cases had become the order of the day and when the elected representatives raised their voice, the police officials became more aggressive towards them.

Rana Mehmood said that unfortunately there had been no improvement in working of police. The attitude of policemen was contemptuous. An ordinary man was afraid of visiting the police stations as they felt that they would be treated like accused, he observed.

Farheen Mughal referred to a recent incident of misconduct with a woman councillor Shahida Ansari by an ASI of the Hussainabad police station.

Shahida Ansari said that despite availability of women police, the accused women were brought to court by male policemen.

The minority members, Deen Kanhya Lal and M. Parkash, and Raza Shah expressed concern over the delay in recovery of three-year-old Raj Kumar in Bhitshah.

The house passed another resolution moved by Babu Ilyas, calling upon the government to convert Mehran Ground into a mini stadium and properly maintain other playgrounds of the district.

COMPUTER MOOT: A one-day national conference on the topic of computer science trends in Pakistan was organized by the Institute of Mathematics and Compute Science, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, in collaboration with Mohammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU), Karachi, and Sindh University Computer Scientists Association the other day.