VIJAYAWADA: As many as 135 out of 1,021 police stations in Andhra Pradesh do not have transport vehicles according to the latest report of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D). Further, vehicle distribution among police stations appear to be skewed in AP as the department has more vehicles than the sanctioned number.
The police department has 9,681 vehicles, which include heavy duty vehicles, four-wheelers, two-wheelers, special vehicles such as anti-riot vehicles, bulletproof and mine protected vehicles. Of these, only 2,641 vehicles are with police stations across the state, states the BPR&D report.
The BPR&D calculated the total number of transport vehicles available with the police departments across the country per 100 police personnel. The sanctioned number of vehicles in Andhra Pradesh stands at 13.1 per 100 personnel. While AP police have 16.26 vehicles per 100 personnel, which is far higher than the sanctioned number, 135 police stations are functioning without any transport vehicle from the department.
Andhra Pradesh stands first in the country for the highest number of police stations without vehicles, followed by Uttar Pradesh. In other words, 52 per cent of police stations in the country without vehicles are in Andhra Pradesh. The share of police stations without vehicles in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh together amount to 81 per cent. In numbers, of the 257 police stations sans vehicles across the country, 210 are in these two states.
The AP police department has 4,484 light duty vehicles, which includes cars, jeeps, other four-wheelers and 4,178 two-wheelers. However, only 1,477 two-wheelers and 1,146 light duty vehicles have been given to the police stations. The vehicle allocation ratio indicates that police stations get only 25% of four-wheelers and 35% of two-wheelers.
