As Good As Having No Data

Immediately after the Easter bombing incident, public announcements were made locally requesting residents to report to some public location for an important Police briefing.

Lucky for us it was a nearby temple and that too walking distance.

Well before the start-up time, Chief Occupant of most residencies have reported and was given to fill up a form by very junior police officer present there

There were no arrangements made to supply writing materials and or a proper place to enable people to fill their forms up.

Once that was over, all were asked to wait till the arrival of the police high up who was supposed to be giving the briefing to the public.

Many people waited long enough and left the place leaving the already filled up forms with the members of Community Police members of their particular wards.

The actual time of the officer’s arrival and the contents of the briefing done to the people who were available at that time are no secrets.

Fast-forward to the time of this Corona epidemic, again announcements were made but this time an officer was visiting from door to door with a member of the community police of that area, handing over another form seeking the same sort of information sought after the Easter bombing incident.

Except for the details of temporary residencies taken up between last April to May this year, very little would have changed in the information that is being sought and further they are already readily available with the government machinery in one form or the other.

If it was a concern of those who seek temporary shelter for some reason or the other and to verify the facts, some random checks should have been done after data was collected after the Easter incident but that was not the case.

What would happen to the new set of data collected is no secret to many.

If any data collected is not sorted, filtered and verified is as good as of having no data at all.

Why waste public money for something finally going to end up on another shelf a few days later is hard to fathom.

That is one of many sad such realities of this country.