For the last few days, around 300 temporary male police personnel have been forced to spend nights on the floor mats of dried leaves regardless of the cold weather in the mountain district. [break]
"I had never thought that I have to sleep on leaves. I did not bring warm clothes with me, but it is too cold here," explained Joshi about hardship being faced by temporary police.
Purna Sahi, another temporary police personnel, said he is already suffering from back pain.
As many as 321 temporary police have been deployed in Bajura from the neighboring Achham district, and 296 of them are male.
Currently, the male temporary police have been cramped inside a building under construction in the premises of Bajura Campus.
The building floors is yet to be plastered, and to make the matter worse, it has no toilet.
"Open area is the only toilet option for us. And the poor living condition is making us ill. Had we known earlier that we would be treated like this, we would have never applied for the temporary police. Our accommodation resembles animals shed," said Shahi.
Accepting that the temporary male police are living in poor condition, Dhurba Raj Joshi, the chief district officer, said the authorities housed them in the building as they could not find a proper house or hotel at Martadi, the district headquarters, to house them.
"We tried our best to manage a better lodging house for the male temporary police. After all the hotels were reserved, we put the temporary male police in the campus building," said he.
Hikmat Bohora, a police inspector at the district police office, said the authorities will shift the temporary police to better place within a few days.
"As we had no other option, we housed them in the building. But by the next three days, we will shift some of them to the district police office and the rest to other local police posts," added he.
However, the female temporary police have much better accommodations. "We do not have any complaint regarding lodging or anything else," said a female temporary police.
Male-female ratio at birth widening