Patiala Police take up community engagement exercise

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 20

Responding positively to a call given by the district police through local VPOs (village police officers) and SHOs, as many as 398 panchayats and 70 ward councils have passed resolutions to join hands with the district administration in their fight against Covid. The resolutions particularly mentioned the Covid-appropriate behaviour, particularly the wearing of mask and maintaining social distance.

Divulging the details of the community-engagement initiative taken up under ‘Mission Fateh’, Patiala SSP Vikram Jeet Duggal said the Patiala police have started involving the local community, youth, village elders and civil society organisations to reach out to the masses, seeking their support in fight against Covid.

“Cases are rising exponentially each day, and we cannot do without the public support. In Patiala only, we are seeing over 300 new Covid cases almost every day. As the community comes forward to assist us in the implementation of the latest government guidelines, it becomes easy for us to focus on the other aspects related to Covid as well as law and order,” said the SSP.

Karam Singh, councillor of Ward 5, Sanour, observed: “This new initiative by the Punjab Police will help contain the spread of the virus by dissemination of information on Covid-appropriate behaviour. We have passed a resolution in the presence of all panchayat members and village elders that no one in the village will come out without mask. We will see that no one comes to the village without mask. We have enough masks at our disposal to distribute so that no one flouts the mask-related norm in the village,” he said.

While extending his gratitude to the people of the district for coming up in a big way to assist the local police in containing the virus, the SSP said: “It is certainly an overwhelming response with so many panchayats taking up this cause, passing hundreds of resolutions in just two days. We are sure the remaining panchayats and ward councils will take a clue from them and will respond to our call.”

The SSP appealed everyone to stick to the latest Covid guidelines issued by the Punjab Government. He warned of strict action against violators.