Delhi cops don good samaritan hats, distribute food to needy amid lockdown

Donning the hats of good samaritans, Delhi Police personnel on Thursday distributed food packets to slum-dwellers in several parts of the national capital amid the lockdown and educated them about the precautions to be taken in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

Approximately 1,000 food packets were distributed with the help of an NGO in slum clusters of West Delhi's Raghubir Nagar and Ghantewala Mandir, they said.

With the help of NGO 'Ek Noor' and peace committee members, the police officials of West district initiated a campaign for distribution of food, water and sanitisation in the slum area, a senior police official said.

As part of the campaign, the slum dwellers and people on the roadsides were also educated about hygiene and precautions to be taken in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Along with NGOs, the police fed stray animals.

"Two boys Prashant and Dilshad, daily wage labourers, have not eaten anything for last 4 days. They made a PCR call today which was received at Inderlok chowki. The chowki staff fed them and also donated food/rashan (sic)," Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Monika Bhardwaj said in a tweet.

Policemen from Kotwali police station have been feeding hundreds of homeless people for the last two days in their area and also making them aware of coronavirus, she said.

Police personnel posted at several district units of the Delhi Police have been distributing food packets in several areas across the city from Andha Mughal, Najafgarh, Kamla Market to Majnu Ka Tila where their staff distributed 500 kg rashan to the homeless.

Sepcial Staff and Narcotics Squad of the south district collectively decided to volunteer and contributed to arrange food packets for the underprivileged, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur.

About 150 food packets were prepared and distributed to the needy in different areas of south district, he said.

Foodstuff was also distributed to daily wage workers in Nirankari Bhawan in Mehrauli, he added.

The police also visited parks and advised people to remain indoors and assisted those who were engaged in feeding stray dogs, officials said.

While distributing rations, the police urged people to maintain social distancing and made appeals through public announcement systems that people stay indoors and venture out only in case of necessities, they said.

Several beat officials met senior citizens in their respective areas to check on them in case they required any essentials or assistance. They were also given masks and made aware of the necessary precautions to be taken to combat the spread of coronavirus, a senior police official said.

Besides intensive patrolling across the city, police also made appeals to people to maintain social distancing while visiting shops to buy essentials, the official said.

Police also marked circles on the ground, for people to stand in while maintaining distance, outside some shops and also urged other shopkeepers to follow the same in order to maintain social distancing among buyers and directed them to serve only one customer at a time to avoid over-crowding.