When a quiet spreads its wings across city every Sunday, the Nurse Quarters near the Central railway station is a hive of activity during the early part of the day.
Police personnel from six police stations in the neighbourhood assemble in small teams for a quick briefing on the work meant for the coming week. The meeting does not end without a social activity — distribution of food packets, water bottles, groceries and cloth face masks to homeless persons and the poor in and around the locality.
Every Sunday, since the first lockdown in March, police personnel from the six police stations — Elephant Gate, Esplanade, Muthalpet, Kotwalchavadi, Fort St. George and North Beach — have been carrying out free distribution of these essential items to homeless people staying at public places like Central railway station, Wall Tax Road, Nurse Quarters, Memorial Hall and Broadway.
So, every Sunday, most of these homeless people head to the Nurse Quarters before noon to get free food and other essentials.
“Our patrol vehicles always carry a bag of food packets to distribute to homeless people on the way. On Sundays, the vehicles would carry more than the usual number of packets,” says 55-year-old M. Ravichandran, assistant commissioner of police (Traffic), Flower Bazaar.
The inspectors at these stations take charge of organising the distribution work without letting it affect their regular work. On an average, over 100 homeless persons, mostly aged people, benefit from the initiative. The Nurse Quarters has remained the common gathering spot for the free distribution as the space around the decades-old Quarters is wide, making it convenient for the police personnel to distribute food packets and other kits, with social distancing.
Says Ravichandran, “This Sunday initiative will continue through the lockdown.”
