For years they held tremendous clout in the area and were vital in gathering finances for police stations’ expenses and were held in high esteem by their own colleagues.
However, the good days for ‘collectors’ or ‘road masters’ of various police units seem to have come to an end after the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police top brass decided to clampdown on the practice. Hereafter, nearly 200 ‘finance caretakers’ in both the commissionerartes will perform traffic management or law and order duties
The collector system was an age-old practice in the police set-up and the proceeds, according to police sources seeking anonymity, reached up to a certain rank of higher officials too. Usually the collector takes monthly ‘mamool’ from wine shops, bars, toddy compounds, scrap yards, hotels, road side push carts and eateries and pan shops, police sources said.
With the government not releasing any money to the police station for the operational expenses like stationery and miscellaneous needs, the station house officers depend on collectors.
Brokering deals
No bar or hotel owner would turn away customers when they come a bit behind permitted hours. “Collectors step in and broker deal ensuring local police allows them to operate even after permitted timings. In turn, monthly sums are collected,” a retired police officer said.
These amounts are pooled together, used for station expenses and also to the next level officials. As the Telangana State government is hell-bent upon giving an image make-over to police in the capital, the higher-ups decided to do away with the system of collectors as it was a main reason for corruption as well.
Now, the government decided to give monthly Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 75,000 for each law and order police station towards expenses. About 100-odd policemen who served as ‘collectors’ in various police units in Hyderabad have been attached to the police headquarters and their services are likely to be utilised for bandobast duties.
The decision is surely laudable but its monthly expenditure should be released by the government without fail. “Otherwise, the system of collectors would rise like Phoenix forcing the police officers to look the other way because they would have to bear expenses from their own pockets otherwise,” a trader said.
Government to give Rs. 50,000 to
Rs. 75,000 every month to police stations towards expenses
