Induction over, woman beat marshal from Mumbai rams bike into divider

Imagine being taught karate how to use a pistol ride a bike and understand public relations and law concepts all in a threemonth span The cityrsquos first women beat marshals reportedly underwent this gruelling training session which showed immediately after they were flagged off yesterday when one of them rammed her bike into a divider near Marine LinesThe marshals line up and are flagged off by actor Rani Mukherji and Home Minister R R Patil PicsSameer MarkandeNearly 205 beat marshals were inducted into the police force at a function attended by Home Minister R R Patil and Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria yesterday One of the marshals Poonam Mohite spoke at the function and soon after it was over lost control of her bike near Meghdoot flyover close to Marine Lines and rammed it into a divider Mohite and the pillion rider were injured and the damaged bike had to be taken away in a tempoldquoThey say they have given training in riding a bike karate use of small arms public relations and law to the women in three months How can anyone learn all that in such a short span Having women beat marshals is a good idea but it should not be one of those things that go away when a new commissioner comes in Every new commissioner comes and brings in new ideas which are discontinued by his successorrdquo said a senior officerOfficial speakSpeaking at the function Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said ldquoThese women will be on the roads and attend to all the problems faced by women children and senior citizens They are trained in karate have pistols and know how to use them They also know how to operate walkietalkies and are also able to drive bikesrdquoldquoWe have inducted these new female marshals and are hopeful that they will be of great help to society We will support them and plan to recruit around 20000 women in the Maharashtra police force in the next four yearsrdquo said Home Minister R R Patil Earlier the Mumbai police only had men as beat marshals whose job is to attend calls made to 100ldquoThough this is a good start the problem is that the women have not been given proper equipment They have been given heavy bikes Ideally they should be given scooterettes which are more femalefriendlyrdquo said a senior police officer who did not wish to be quotedThe women however are undaunted ldquoWe are happy to be part of the beat marshal squad and have got good training in the last three months We are hopeful we will be able to do good workrdquo said Ashwini Shende a female beat marshal who was attached to the local arms unit and will now be transferred to a police station A police officer said ldquoThe threemonth training given to these beat marshals was in addition to the six months of training that constables have to go through They have been given the bestpossible trainingrdquoSafety beatThe women marshals have been inducted to ensure the safety of women children and senior citizens following the increase in crimes against these groups They have been given 100 bikes and two marshals each will be assigned to the Mumbai policersquos 93 police stations The Mumbai police has a strength of around 49000 in which there are 4604 women constables and around 400 female police officers