An enlightening initiative
Whenever one thinks of a police station, they would imagine police vans sitting outside, ready to roll out. They would think of seized vehicles, piles of documents sitting on the desks and criminals behind bars.
But of all things, one would not think of a library there.
However, Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) has taken an initiative to change that. CMP has set up libraries for all in the 6 police stations within its jurisdiction, with an aim to induce a reading habit among all stakeholders.
CMP's former commissioner Saleh Mohammd Tanvir took the initiative during his tenure in an effort to make sure that the force can brainstorm better reading different kinds of books between intervals of their work.
He is now the director of Central Police Hospital in Dhaka.
The libraries have been decorated with various kinds of books on poetry, crime fiction, law, Liberation War and policing, among others. Every police station has 300 to 600 books in their respective libraries.
This correspondent visited several police station libraries including Kotwali, Khulshi and Double Mooring police stations. The Kotwali Police Station library has 600 books.
It was set up on the station's ground floor inside a room.
Sub-inspector Mominul Islam of the police station said, "I used to read many books. After joining the force however, it became difficult to read as much. But now, it's quite easy as the library is located at my office."
Khulshi Police Station Officer-in-Charge Sontosh Kumar Chakma said, "Not just police personnel, sometimes, the accused read books inside the cell as well."
"We've collected different kinds of books to meet the readers' demand. Due to a space crisis, we installed the library at the entrance of the police station," he said.
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