Police rope in 4,336 volunteers for relief ops, curfew enforcement

The scheme launched on a pilot basis in 10 districts so far has seen these volunteers work closely with police personnel on delivery of essential services and other relief as well as enforcement work at the ground level

Punjab Police have roped in 4,336 volunteers to join the “Dial 112” workforce to support the 40,000-strong force on the ground and further ramp up effective supervision of Covid-19-related relief operations.

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The scheme launched on a pilot basis in 10 districts so far has seen these volunteers work closely with police personnel on delivery of essential services and other relief as well as enforcement work at the ground level, director general of police Dinkar Gupta said in a statement.

The districts covered incude Amritsar city (270), Amritsar rural (83), Bathinda (370), Fazilka (343), Ferozepur (239), Jalandhar City (267), Ludhiana City (1602), Ludhiana Rural (388), SAS Nagar (272) and Patiala (502). The services of these volunteers are also being used in other districts, on need basis.

“These DIAL 112 volunteers, as they are called, are assisting the police in various functions including, preparation of ration packets and their distribution, traffic regulation and enforcement of curfew, providing emergency medical help/medicines, distribution of sanitary pads, besides distributing food packets to the force deployed on duty,” he said.

The police decided to enrol volunteers as the number of calls received on the ‘DIAL 112 Emergency Response Service’ (ERS), which was converted to curfew helpline, had gone up phenomenally in recent days, to touch 24,000 per day, he said. The helpline response capacity has also been doubled.

Gupta also said that 381 FIRs were been registered, 568 persons arrested, 186 vehicles impounded and 1,499 persons taken to open jails for curfew violations. Apart from these, four FIRs have also been registered against the persons indulged in spreading fake news on social media.