New Delhi: It’s around 11 pm Saturday night and at the IP Estate flyover in Central Delhi, there is an orderly gathering of migrant workers and the homeless. There is none of the chaos that parts of the city bordering Uttar Pradesh have been witnessing since the 21-day lockdown has come into force.
As the orderly queue waits, food begins getting distributed in neat aluminium packages — by personnel of the Delhi Police.
Police personnel across the country have faced flak for the way they have handled those violating the lockdown, with several videos of high-handedness doing the rounds, but away from the cameras, forces such as the Delhi Police have also been doing their bit to help people during their hour of crisis.
The Delhi Police, for instance, has designated personnel to manage the collection and distribution of cooked food in districts across the capital. The police have also started a helpline number (011-23469526) for those in need of food so the designated personnel can coordinate accordingly.
“Food delivery networks have been established through tie-ups with several NGOs, RWAs and individuals willing to help, in localities that are inhabited by migrant labourers and underprivileged people,” Commissioner of Police S.N. Srivastava told ThePrint. “This facilitation has enabled food supplies at more than 250 locations, feeding thousands of people every day.”
“This is not the food that we are getting from the kitchen of the police force,” Srivastava added. “We are just collecting the food by coordinating with people. We feel that feeding people is the least we can do at this time.”
On any given day, the Delhi Police has been distributing over 17,000 food packets, Monika Bhardwaj, DCP North, told ThePrint.
“We have now set the time and place where the food (two meals) will be distributed every day, and have told everyone that they should gather at the decided location at that time,” Bhardwaj said.
“We have asked the homeless to stay inside their shelters and have decided the spots where food will be distributed around these shelters,” she added. “This is to ensure that these people do not have to travel much for food.”
Persuading migrant workers not to leave
Besides distribution of food, the police are also urging migrant workers to remain where they have been staying. They have now started arranging mini-vans to drop them to the areas from where they started out on foot to go back to their villages in UP and Bihar.
On Sunday, the government sealed all the state borders, stopping thousands of migrants and daily wage labourers who had gathered at Anand Vihar bus terminal from going back to their respective villages.
To help them return to where they were staying in Delhi, the police have now deployed buses.
“We do not want people to migrate at this time. It is like spreading the virus and not limiting it,” Srivstava said. “People who are trying to migrate are dependent on daily labour to earn their meals. With the lockdown, they have no job to perform, hence no money and no food. We are just trying our best to help them in whatever way we can.”
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So they chose the author for the PR. Anyways no amount of food distribution will restore their credibility after their complicity in the anti- Muslim pogrom in Delhi, not to speak of countless atrocities they unleash everyday against Indian citizens. They are and will remain Tadipar/Chai-wala/Kapil Mishra’s riot army as long as they remain at the helm of affairs.