This high-profile area has industrial houses conducting business of over $10 billion, a bustling national highway cutting across towns and the presence of heavyweights like Nithya-nanda and Muthappa Rai. But how many policemen guard this area? Just 30, with one police inspector monitoring his men. The force is equipped with all of two motorbikes and a jeep. Welcome to boomtown Bidadi. Despite political stalwarts like former home minister P.G.R. Scindia, former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar and forest minister C.P. Yogeshwar representing Ramanagar district, under which Bidadi falls, the area has not received the support it deserves.
A spate of recent robberies has shaken the employees of Kumbalgod’s KIADB Industrial Area under Bidadi police limits. Owners and managers of industries have submitted a memorandum, asking the police to protect their employees. But what can one expect from the severely understaffed and overworked Bidadi station. The police station has a sub-inspector rank officer, two assistant sub-inspectors, seven police head constables and 20 constables, including one woman constable. The jeep does not have a driver and the sub-inspector drives it around.
Though the SP’s office has sent a proposal to set up a police station in Kumbalgod, it has been pending before the government for long. Suggestions have also been made to include the area under the Bengaluru police commissionerate, but no action has been taken. The police force has also pleaded with the home ministry to reduce the jurisdiction of this station, which has to cover 132 villages. But no solution has been found.