Delhi: Dedicated police team for checking COVID-19 norm violations, traffic cops withdrawn from task

With road traffic returning to "near normal" in the city, the traffic police has been asked to focus on managing vehicular movement, withdrawing them from COVID-19-related tasks such as issuing fines for spitting in public places, not wearing mask and violating distancing norms.

With road traffic returning to "near normal" in the city, the traffic police has been asked to focus on managing vehicular movement, withdrawing them from COVID-19-related tasks such as issuing fines for spitting in public places, not wearing mask and violating distancing norms. Until now, the Delhi Traffic Police was also tasked with the responsibility of issuing challans for violations of coronavirus-related regulations after they came into effect. "It has been decided that traffic police shall not challan any person for not wearing masks or spitting in public places etc," the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said in an order issued on Tuesday. DCP (Headquarters) Chinmoy Biswal also issued a communication the same day, saying that the Delhi Police will deploy dedicated teams in each police station to check violations of COVID-19 norms, as coronavirus cases are rising in the city again. He said all police stations will deploy such team in uniform at one location from 10 am to 6 pm every day.

"In view of the spread of Coronavirus in Delhi, each police station shall detail one dedicated team comprising an upper subordinate and one lower subordinate to report to one location in their respective district to prosecute persons who violate protocals such as, not wearing of masks, not maintaining social distancing, spitting etc," the order said. The district Deputy Commissioners of Police have been asked to select one area/location by rotation where frequent violations are noticed and keep it under the supervision of the inspector for concerned police station. Other district police personnel engaged in picket checking, patrol duty and crime control should concentrate on their primary job of crime control and law and order, and not on prosecution for COVID-19 violations, the order said. They shall not be issued the challan book, it said.

"The traffic personnel shall concentrate on regulating the traffic and shall not be assigned the task of prosecuting public persons for violating Covid-19 protocal. The primary attention shall be regulating traffic in view of near normalcy of traffic on the roads. "As regards prosecutions for traffic violations, they shall concentrate on those violations which affect security of road users," Biswal mentioned in the order. All challan books available with district/traffic policemen shall be taken back and kept in safe custody under the knowledge of concerned DCsP, he said in the order. According to a data shared by the Delhi Police, until 4 pm on September 8, it has issued 2,77,131 challans for not wearing mask, 2,434 for spitting in public places, 26,116 for violating social distancing.

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