Police’s bike squad delivers meals to Covid patients

After a steep increase in the number of coronavirus infections in the district, the police have tied up with a local NGO to deliver cooked meals to patients in home isolation who are unable to arrange for food.

A police control room (PCR) motorcycle team has been delivering food to needy patients and has already catered to at least 20 patients. The move comes after Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta issued directions to launch Covid canteens in all districts.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP, law and order) Ashwani Kapoor is the nodal officer for the initiative in Ludhiana. Kapoor along with four assistant commissioners of police (ACPs) — ACP traffic Gurdev Singh, ACP crime-1 Mandeep Singh, ACP crime-2 Surinder Mohan and ACP command centre Naveen Kumar are ensuring that only those in genuine need are availing the service.

Covid patients can call on the helpline numbers 181 and 112 to seek the police’s help in getting cooked food delivered. Personnel in the PCR will collect the address and contact details of the caller and share it with teams, who will verify the details of the caller and check their Covid report.

Patients who have availed of the service once need not call every day. “After receiving the first call, we will provide two meals (lunch and dinner) a day to the patient until he or she is under isolation,” said the DCP.