india

Updated: Oct 22, 2019 19:25 IST

A retired superintendent of police in coastal Balasore district of Odisha has started polishing shoes to protest the callousness of police officials in dealing with public.

Since October 2 this year, retired Vigilance SP Ujjwal Kumar Brahma has been polishing shoes in different parts of Balasore town to protest against the callousness. On Monday Brahma was spotted polishing shoes in front of the Balasore SP’s office much to the amusement of passersby.

“I had served in different police stations and finally retired as SP vigilance in Bhubaneswar in 2010. I know how policemen work and the common men are harassed in police stations. Post-retirement, when I go to police stations to lodge FIRs of common people, I see cops are not ready to accept FIRs. I feel the police department needs polish and that’s why I have started this symbolic protest,” said Brahma. The former cop has so far sat three times in protest since October 2.

Brahma said he has written a small book titled “Police next to Almighty” in Odia to show how much power a common policeman wields in society. “In my service days I used to enjoy my job serving the people back then. But now I see cops do not even reach police stations on time and have little regard for efficiency and integrity,” said Brahma.

Incidentally, the Naveen Patnaik government since October 2 started a scheme called Mo Sarkar in which common people who go to police station with their grievances can lodge complaint through a toll free number against the cops. If a policeman’s behaviour is found to be unacceptable, then he would be punished.

Brahma said the Mo Sarkar scheme was a good scheme, but it may not change much as corruption and inefficiency in the police has become deep rooted.