Coronavirus: Punjab Police distributes 1.9 lakh food packets across state amid COVID-19 crisis

The Punjab Police on Friday said it has scaled up relief operations across the curfew-locked state, distributing nearly 1.9 lakh food packets and setting up medical camps in various districts.

The police force has also facilitated the movement of about 3,000 trucks and lorries carrying essential items into the state across various inter-state border points in the past 24 hours, Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said. He said the police are working on introducing new kinds of passes, including an inter-state critical emergency transit pass, covering the states of Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

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A total of 42,515 police personnel across ranks, along with volunteers, were on the ground on Friday to enforce curfew and maintain essential supplies as well as law and order, the DGP said in a statement. A total of 79 FIRs were registered and 104 persons arrested in the past 24 hours for violation of curfew and quarantine guidelines, he said. Gupta said a total of 1.9 lakh food packets were distributed on Friday, of which 1,34,815 lakh contained cooked food and 53,502 contained dry food.

He said all-out efforts were being made to restore the supply chain of essential goods as well as all kinds of foods and perishable commodities "which had been disrupted due to the sudden nationwide lockdown order of the Union Government". The movement of goods vehicles across the inter-state border as well as within the state has been restored completely, he added.

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According to the statement, police are making efforts to enrol volunteers as "curfew police" officers to enforce the curfew, especially in areas where the police presence is thin on the ground.

The DGP said efforts were also being made to involve ordinary rickshaw pullers to sell vegetables, milk, etc in small areas of operation. This would facilitate delivery of vegetables and provide livelihood to the rickshaw pullers, he said. Meanwhile, the Haryana Police said that apart from ensuring the strict enforcement of the lockdown, it is also providing essential items to daily wage earners who have been rendered jobless during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Haryana's Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Navdeep Singh Virk said the daily wagers are being provided with food and other essential items. Police are also ensuring people follow social distancing in mandis across the state. Senior officers in the field are visiting these spots regularly, he said.