State police get ‘kitchen on wheels’, to follow troops on duty

A normal State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) platoon of 70 to 80 odd men move around with a cook, also a SRPF personnel who cooks for the personnel when they are posted at various places.

The SRPF personnel can be deployed in areas of forest, water, villages, riot spots, border villages and events like election or government functions and even move out of the state if the force is required by other states. The cook has to prepare meals at such spots where sometimes there is no clean drinking water, while in other places he has to cook in open space or with little means available.

A senior police official from the Modernisation Department said, “A moving kitchen will benefit the SRPF that usually rough it up by putting tents to live, absence of wash-rooms at few places and cooked food in stock for hundreds of them when they are deployed on bandobast. A full-fledged kitchen will help them get hygienic and enough food for better health.”

This moving kitchen van is equipped with a modular kitchen, cooking gas and chimney, refrigerator, purified water point, modern chopping and other equipments, storage cabins and other needs of the kitchen. This modern kitchen would now move along with the SRPF platoons across the state.

The plan for the “kitchen on wheels” was passed in this year’s Budget when the state government gave a go-ahead to this expensive arrangement.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) S K Nanda said, “This year, the state police requested that at least one kitchen should be brought in for the troops and later more vans would be purchased. The government has shown keenness to supply more kitchen to the police.”

The Home Department officials said that the moving kitchen is a well known concept in police forces aboard where the kitchens are a part of the patrol wagon. The patrol wagons are also equipped with video and communication services also extended to ensure the communication with the deployed troops is on throughout the day.

When asked, the SRPF personnel expressed excitement about the new luxury kitchen for them. However, they added that the moving kitchen wouldn’t really solve their issues because they face shortage of grocery when out for several days in distant districts.