GUJRAT: Construction of the District Police Complex has been facing a halt for the last five years and even the structural work has been left incomplete due to unavailability of funds for the project.

The scheme to construct a new office for the Gujrat district police officer (DPO) was initiated in 2008 and a sum of Rs51.66 million was earmarked for it, however, the Punjab government released only one installment of Rs16.384 million in the fiscal year 2008-09.The Punjab government had approved the establishment of another block on the land adjacent to the DPO’s house in 2007 to meet the requirements of the police department. The construction was started in 2008, however, it was stopped after the completion of the structure of the ground floor and the roof of the first floor was also left incomplete due to lack of funds.

The current office of the Gujrat DPO is congested and about 18 branches of the police are working in its dilapidated rooms while rainwater often accumulates there. The condition of the complaint cell, legal branch, security branch, reader office, OSI branch, PA branch and traffic DSP’s office is very poor.

There is no space for the public waiting room in the DPO office, especially the people who suffer from the harsh weather in the open in front of the security branch, complaint cell and Traffic DSP’s office.

At least three branches, including overseas help desk, PSO branch and doctors help desk are working in a single room which was constructed by the overseas Pakistanis for the establishment of a help desk for them. Separate offices of the Gujrat SP Investigation and the SP Headquarters and their staff had also been situated in the same congested compound that was built around four decades ago.

While the remaining amount of the project is Rs34.280 million that has not been released in the last five years, the officials in the provincial building department said that as per the revised estimate of the project, the cost would increase.

An official of the police said the ruling PML-N’s legislators, belonging to Gujrat district, had been unable to get the funds released from the Punjab government.

The official said the Gujrat DPO office had also knocked on the door of the Punjab inspector general of police consistently as the last time the IG office was approached through a written request on Jan 23, the last for pursuing the Punjab government to release funds for the project.

A senior police officer told Dawn it seemed the legislators, belonging to Gujrat, were more interested in the uplift projects of their respective constituencies rather than of concentrating on that incomplete project of the DPO office.

Gujrat DPO Rai Ijaz Ahmad refused to comment on the matter of the delay in the completion of the police complex.

DOUBLE MURDER: A man shot dead his wife and mother-in-law over a domestic dispute in village Dhan of Karianwala police remit on Monday night.

Reports said Javed of Bhalwal, Sargodha district, had come to his in-laws house to reconcile with his wife, Eman Fatima, but she refused to go along with him. Javed shot dead Fatima and her mother, Rubeena Bibi, and fled the scene.

Police have registered a case against the accused on the report of his brother-in-law Waqas Ali.