Chandigarh, March 26: The Punjab Police on Thursday intensified relief operations across the curfew-locked state, with more than 41,000 of its personnel on the ground distributing more than 1,50,000 dry food packets in the past 36 hrs to those in need, along with door-to-door delivery of essentials to citizens in all the districts.
The total number of food packets distributed to the needy so far is over 1.5 lakhs, said DGP Dinkar Gupta, adding that to further facilitate the general public in meeting their essential needs and coping with medical emergencies, an e-Pass facility for Covid-19 curfew has been launched.
Also, the helpline number 112 has been converted to Curfew Helpline, and it will now respond to, and deal with, all curfew-related problems, said the DGP, appealing to people to contact the police for all emergencies arising out of the clampdown.
The DGP further said the e-pass facility will ensure smooth movement of essential goods and services and also help citizens having medical emergencies. The facility is available at the link https://epasscovid19.pais.net.in/. In this system, those eligible under different categories or having a medical emergency can fill in their particulars along with their supporting documents and submit their applications online, to obtain their curfew passes.
Giving details of the facility, the DGP disclosed that in all Commissionerates/ Districts, two officers each have been designated as ‘Curfew Pass Officers’. These officers shall examine all the applications and make all endeavors to accept genuine applications which are supported by relevant documents. In all accepted cases, the applicant shall be forwarded a link through which he/she can generate e-Pass on his/her smart phone and even print it, if required. Other than the identification details of the person/ vehicle, the pass shall also contain a QR Code which may be checked by police officers on duty.
While this facility has been extended to facilitate free movement of essential goods and services and also to help citizens in emergency, the DGP warned that any citizen found misusing or misrepresenting this pass or using it beyond the validity shall be liable for strict action under the rules. The public are advised to keep the pass handy either in printed form or on their smart phone for verification by police as and when required, he added.
On the relief operations conducted by the police teams across districts, the DGP said that last 24 hrs a total of more than 130000+ packets have been distributed all over to the needy people in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Barnala, Bathinda, Moga, and other districts. Around 14,300 food packets have been distributed in the past three days by Tarn Taran Police. They have coordinated with all major gurudwaras in Goindwal Sahib, Chohla Sahib, Jhabhal and Bhikiwind, as well as many local gurudwaras, and all GOs, SHOs and I/c PPs are distributing these packets in different areas, following social distancing norms, he added.
More people would be reached via the emergency helplines, Dinkar said, adding that some individuals had also come forward to help in this effort.
The DGP said the door-to-door drive to distribute 10 lakh packets of dry rations to daily wagers & unorganised labour, as announced by the Chief Minister, will commence tomorrow.
In the process of distribution, the police teams have identified a large number of slum dwellers in all districts, and managed to cover almost every area with food packets & dry rations, said Gupta, adding that they expected to cover all major and minor parts of the cities soon. The police force has also tied up with NGOs other organisations that have expressed willingness to provide food packets, and are giving them logistic help, he added.
People were being educated with respect to social distancing, and the same was being ensured, through red cardboard sticks, particularly at chemist shops from where reports of crowding were coming, said the DGP.
Giving district-wise details, the DGP said that the Patiala administration had given license to registered shopkeepers in the district to provide the essential commodities through home delivery. It has also released a list of authorized shopkeepers.
In districts Mansa and Bathinda, the administrations have started providing essential goods to the people by giving passes and different time slots to shopkeepers.
However, in Moga, the shopkeepers had refused to provide doorstep supply, while in Ludhiana and Fazilka, there were reports of price escalations, according to the DGP, who added that similarly, door-to-door had not started yet in Ferozepur, while in Taran Taran, there was some confusion about the opening of petrol pumps. Problems were also reported during the day from some areas, said Gupta, adding that all efforts were being made to resolve the issues in coordination with the administration as well as delivery vehicles such as Zomato, Swiggy, Uber Eats etc.
