Cops to focus on Games, not city

You will find one traffic policeman every 300 metres on all roads used by Commonwealth Games delegates and athletes during the event. The rest of Delhi will have to make do with one traffic cop every 15 km. Vijaita Singh and Jatin Anand report.

You will find one traffic policeman every 300 metres on all roads used by Commonwealth Games delegates and athletes during the event. The rest of Delhi will have to make do with one traffic cop every 15 km.

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Not only this. Half of the city's 80,000 policemen will also be on Games duty, leaving only 40,000 Delhi Police personnel in charge of security for a population of 1.7 crore.

The security forecast for the average Delhiite is especially gloomy, considering the crime till June this year has already topped the previous six years' numbers.

Delhi Police is trying to address the crunch by roping in its clerical staff, section officers and personal assistants of senior-most cadres and even cooks and sweepers deployed at the house of senior and retired police officers.

"The rest of Delhi will be thinly policed traffic wise," said Ajay Chaddha, special commissioner of police (traffic).

The physical training instructors from police training colleges have also been pressed into security services.

Officers right from the Special Commissioner of Police to the Deputy Commissioner of Police levels will have to give-up their handymen.

"All our officers are trained police personnel regardless of the posts that they occupy in the hierarchy of service."

"Every attempt has been made to deploy them at locations where they will have minimal difficulty in communicating with and assisting their officers.

"They have been given suitable roles to perform and motivated to perform each role efficiently," said Rajan Bhagat, spokesperson, Delhi Police.

Occasions like the Republic Day and the Independence Day when most policemen are diverted for security duties are among the days when petty crime shoots up.

The figures speak for themselves; 126 vehicles, including two-wheelers, were stolen on the eve and on Independence Day this year while on an average 33 vehicles are stolen on any day.

Similarly on Republic Day 181 vehicle thefts were reported from the "heavily guarded" city.