Amid crisis, police personnel working round the clock

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandar, May 9

Giving priority to his duty in this time of crisis, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Manjit Singh daily covers over 30 km to reach the Civil Hospital. He has been deployed outside the trauma care centre of the hospital where Covid-19 patients are being treated.

After duty hours, he keeps himself in isolation for a few hours before meeting his wife and his son at Bhogpur.

“Initially, I was scared of the coronavirus. Now, I feel Covid-19 is like any other disease and I am doing my duty like any other regular day,” he said.

Like him, over 3,000 police personnel have been working round the clock in the city. From ensuring the implementation of the curfew to apprehending curfew violators, ensuring social distancing at various places and maintaining law and order, they perform their duties without any fear.

Donning protective gear and bearing the sunlight, policemen are always available on the frontline.

Following the ‘Duty Comes First’ notion, police personnel deployed in containment zones said, “We know that we are endangering our family members’ lives, but if we won’t perform our duty, then who else will do so? We work for hours to ensure that people stay safe. However, they are not willing to understand the gravity of the situation. Making them understand about the risk involved in moving out of their houses has turned out to be an uphill task.”

The Commissioner of Police, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, said, “Amid fear and panic, we ensure that all employees return home safely after their duties. For this, extra care is being taken off. Besides safety kits, healthy food is provided to all police personnel. They get tablets of multivitamins and B-complex every day. Looking at the seriousness of the disease, policewomen who have kids, employees above 55 years and others having issues have been relieved from their duties.”

ACP (headquarters) Bimal Kant said, “For policemen deployed in high-risk zones, new uniforms, shoes and PPE kits have been provided. Medical teams regularly examine them. So far, only one policeman has been infected with the coronavirus in Jalandhar.”