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Indore, Madhya
Pradesh
Market Forces
State
police battalions turns profit savvy in a big way
By
N. K. Singh
In
a country where there are always places of unrest, you would expect specially
trained police personnel to be in the trenches. They are normally. Jawans
from the Madhya Pradesh Special Armed Police Force (SAF), for instance,
have proved themselves in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and the North-east,
besides dealing with Naxalites and bandits in central India. But today,
you would also find some of the 30,000 men of the force behind shop counters
or in std booths. Not surprising considering the paramilitary organisation
has added words like turnover, profit and production targets to its lexicon.
 The
SAF has its own banks, petrol pumps, supermarkets, gas agencies, computer
training institutes, cafeterias, PCOs, even cybercafes. The total turnover
of these businesses in the past financial year was an impressive Rs 27
crore, the estimated profit Rs 55 lakh. This money is used for welfare
schemes. Several battalions of SAF have formed cooperative societies to
run these businesses. They employ, besides workers from the SAF, salaried
staff to run their affairs.
Welfare
activities for police forces have till now been confined to healthcare,
schools, libraries, community centres and canteens. Outgoing Additional
Director-General of SAF Dinesh Jugran, during whose tenure the project
started, feels these activities have brought about an attitudinal change
in the force. "The new welfare activities have made the lives of
the jawans' dependents easier and boosted the force's morale," he
says.
It all began
when a young IPS officer, Rajendra Mishra, took over as commandant of
the 15th Battalion at Indore in 1997. He was pained to see the poor living
conditions of the jawans. "Their salaries were inadequate,"
says Mishra. "and they lived in places no better than slums."
He ruminated over whether the battalion could be transformed into a self-sufficient
community.
Today, the
families living in the 15th Battalion premises have their own water supply
scheme, sewer lines, street lighting and electricians. Their self-help
groups have also repaired houses, built lavatories and roads. All this
for a mere Rs 50 per month per family. The success of this idea has caught
on and other battalions have started similar schemes.
The SAF's
pride are the 19 cooperative thrift and credit societies. These have been
so successful in places like Indore that their operations have been computerised.
With a capital base of over Rs 6 crore these "banks" transacted
business worth Rs 8 crore last year. Members get loans, both short term
and long term, without hassles. Assistant Sub Inspector Sambhunath Singh
of the 15th Battalion, for example, borrowed Rs 1.2 lakh to repair his
house and to invest in a flat and repaid the loan at the rate of Rs 3,000
per month. As the experiment succeeded and replicated itself, the "banks"
became the pivots for all SAF's welfare activities.
In particular,
the petrol pumps have proved to be a money spinner with a turnover of
Rs 8 crore last year. The gas agencies did business of Rs 2.2 crore last
year, while the fair-price shops sold grain worth Rs 5 crore. The old
canteens have been converted into supermarkets selling household goods
and consumer durables. Most items sell at lower than market rates because
the shops keep a margin of only 2 per cent. The supermarkets are open
to the public, as are the cafeterias, which logged a turnover of Rs 51
lakh last year. Earlier SAF women's welfare centres used to stitch uniforms.
They now retail readymades, with tags that are much lower than prevailing
market prices.
The 15th
Battalion recently opened a cybercafe. Its PCOs, fax booths and photocopying
shops are also doing well. The computer training institute at Indore,
which charges a nominal fee of Rs 100 per month, has imparted training
to 700 policemen. The latest addition is a public school for which the
15th Battalion has ambitious plans. Says Mishra: "While it can impart
quality education to our people, we can also earn some money from the
school." Profit now seems to be the buzzword in an organisation that
was better known for encounters of a different kind.
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