In a bid to protect themselves from criticism, especially during the intervening night of 15-16 December, one year after the brutal gang-rape with a 23-year-old girl, top police officials took a round of patrolling on Sunday night. The visit by top officials only resulted in traffic chaos for more than two hours in many areas.
Generally, the Delhi police chief makes a surprise visit to the streets during dark hours to check the ground reality of policing. Usually, these visits by the chief are taken twice or thrice in a year. Meanwhile, the additional commissioner of police or deputy commissioner of police visits areas falling under their jurisdiction, once in every three-four months.
Since late evening on Sunday, commuters faced lot of problems including traffic snarls, unexpected checking of driving documents and scanning of the vehicles. Unfortunately the entire police machinery was all set to impress top cops on this momentous occasion, instead of ensuring consistent protection to its citizens.
Surprisingly, a few days ago when Millennium Post wandered around the streets of Delhi in the middle of the night, it found an absence of cops, especially in poorly lit areas.
On Sunday, when BS Bassi, Delhi police commissioner decided to go on a surprise visit, police officials were already aware about the planned visit and senior officers from all the districts were on alert.
A source in Delhi police department told Millennium Post, ‘All SHOs in each police station were informed about the commissioner’s visit along with few special commissioners of police. The SHOs then directed their head constables, sub-inspectors and constables to do active patrolling in their areas.’
All policemen on night duty were instructed to not to use their mobile phones and had to check as many vehicles they could. Also, cops had to patrol in the poorly lit areas, with the mandatory presence of at least one cop at public transport junctions.
Major areas like Badarpur, Ring Road, Connaught Place, India Gate, New Friends Colony, ITO, Chhatarpur, Patpargunj, Mayur Vihar, Mandir Marg, Rohini, Delhi Cantt, to name a few, were barricaded. These barricades have caused traffic snarls in most of these areas. At least four to five cops were deployed on each barricade, placed within a few metres of each other.
‘It seems that Delhi is on alert. The heavy deployment of the cops made us think twice about the occasion or the cause behind this policing,’ Rakesh one of the commuters at Badarpur road, said.
Anjali, a resident of east Delhi, who got stuck at Sarai Kale Khan at 11.05 pm, while returning from a wedding ceremony said, ‘I had to drive my car in first gear for 1.5 km due to traffic chaos. During the whole stretch I was thinking why there is so much traffic on this broad road. Then I saw three barricades in a zig-zag pattern where cops were checking vehicles’.
However, late on Monday evening Millennium Post found that the presence of cops and barricades were not as prominent, as it was on Sunday night, when top police officials visited these sites.
Generally, the Delhi police chief makes a surprise visit to the streets during dark hours to check the ground reality of policing. Usually, these visits by the chief are taken twice or thrice in a year. Meanwhile, the additional commissioner of police or deputy commissioner of police visits areas falling under their jurisdiction, once in every three-four months.
Since late evening on Sunday, commuters faced lot of problems including traffic snarls, unexpected checking of driving documents and scanning of the vehicles. Unfortunately the entire police machinery was all set to impress top cops on this momentous occasion, instead of ensuring consistent protection to its citizens.
Surprisingly, a few days ago when Millennium Post wandered around the streets of Delhi in the middle of the night, it found an absence of cops, especially in poorly lit areas.
On Sunday, when BS Bassi, Delhi police commissioner decided to go on a surprise visit, police officials were already aware about the planned visit and senior officers from all the districts were on alert.
A source in Delhi police department told Millennium Post, ‘All SHOs in each police station were informed about the commissioner’s visit along with few special commissioners of police. The SHOs then directed their head constables, sub-inspectors and constables to do active patrolling in their areas.’
All policemen on night duty were instructed to not to use their mobile phones and had to check as many vehicles they could. Also, cops had to patrol in the poorly lit areas, with the mandatory presence of at least one cop at public transport junctions.
Major areas like Badarpur, Ring Road, Connaught Place, India Gate, New Friends Colony, ITO, Chhatarpur, Patpargunj, Mayur Vihar, Mandir Marg, Rohini, Delhi Cantt, to name a few, were barricaded. These barricades have caused traffic snarls in most of these areas. At least four to five cops were deployed on each barricade, placed within a few metres of each other.
‘It seems that Delhi is on alert. The heavy deployment of the cops made us think twice about the occasion or the cause behind this policing,’ Rakesh one of the commuters at Badarpur road, said.
Anjali, a resident of east Delhi, who got stuck at Sarai Kale Khan at 11.05 pm, while returning from a wedding ceremony said, ‘I had to drive my car in first gear for 1.5 km due to traffic chaos. During the whole stretch I was thinking why there is so much traffic on this broad road. Then I saw three barricades in a zig-zag pattern where cops were checking vehicles’.
However, late on Monday evening Millennium Post found that the presence of cops and barricades were not as prominent, as it was on Sunday night, when top police officials visited these sites.