Lucknow Policemen Keep Their Mobiles Off

Government spent huge amounts of money to give BSNL and Hutch mobile connections down to the level of Station Officers in each of the Police Stations of Lucknow. Consequent to this expenditure, the Government decided to do away with basic landline telephones in various Police Stations. Unfortunately, instead of becoming more accessible to public, the police officers still continue to remain as elusive as their phones are kept off most of the times and the helpless public is left with no option but to pass their grievances to the higher authorities. HTE has learnt that most of these officers have 'private numbers' on which they continue to talk freely while the official mobile is kept close. In fact, some daring officers even show the audacity to remove the official SIM and put their personal SIM, instead.
The case is different if you go higher up. While the senior officers are not resorting to keeping the phone off, their phone is picked up by a junior officer who decides whether to pass on the phone to 'saab' or not. Wonder whether giving mobiles has made any difference, if the 'saab' is not going to pick it up himself!