: City Police Commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal said police personnel have been taking a series of steps to enforce the COVID-19 norms such as wearing masks, maintenance of physical distance and others.
At police quarters in Chennai, Mr. Aggarwal on Saturday inaugurated a special programme to get police personnel and their family members in the city vaccinated. He said the primary duties of the police force are to maintain law and order, crime prevention and regulating traffic. Above all since it is a public service, police personnel also have the duty to redress any grievance of the public at the time of pandemic. “Keeping this in mind, we have adopted a strategy to contain the spread COVID-19,” he said.
“After polling was over, we are conducting a series of awareness campaigns and meetings with traders’ associations and others. We have explained to them the precautions to be taken and the guidelines that should be followed. In all slums, police patrol vehicles and Amma patrol vehicles have been creating awareness on the necessity of wearing masks, physical distancing, and maintaining hygiene conditions. At important traffic junctions, traffic police personnel, using public addressable systems, are creating awareness campaigns. All wings of police are participating in the awareness campaign,” said Mr. Aggarwal.
He said so far 85,764 cases were booked for not wearing masks, 117 cases were booked for ‘quarantine violation’, and 1,50,318 cases were booked for non-maintenance of physical distance. A three pronged strategy was effectively being implemented, he said.
Mr. Aggarwal said so far 3,315 police personnel had COVID-19 and 87 personnel are still either under home quarantine or in isolation or under treatment in hospitals. “Only 6,000 police personnel in the city have got vaccinated. Whoever is eligible should not stay away from vaccination, we have taken efforts to increase the coverage. Police personnel should not be complacent about the vaccination,” said Mr. Aggarwal.
