Bhaskar Rao
As the Bangalore Police commissioner, I along with my 21,000 strong police force, have had to re-define the word “normal” in the last few months. We worked in 3 shifts, manned almost 400 check posts and used every available resource as a force multiplier to fight the Corona pandemic.
When we enforced Section 144, it became a mind-boggling challenge for our staff to lock down a bustling, vibrant, revenue-generating city while ensuring that lathis were not used. To ensure the safety of the team, we equipped our constables with visors, sanitises, masks as each of them interacted with over 250 people on a daily basis. Leadership qualities have come to the fore as they use their discretion to deal with grey areas within the broad outlines of crisp instructions.
Though we faced several day- to – day issues, every day was a learning experience to us. Be it progressing from issuing paper passes to electronic passes overnight or our women officers distributing over 50000 sanitary pads in migrant camps to supplying rotis to non rice eating migrants from the north and even one of our constables ensuring dignified burials, our team has become sensitive, kind, accessible and more responsive to people’s needs through the span of this whole crisis. They have also understood the stress and uneasiness faced by the common man. Imagine the hustle-bustle of the city suddenly coming to a standstill. In fact, when we first announced that we would be giving passes, there were 47 lakh applications but we zeroed in on 2 lakh applicants. People thought it was a movement pass for all. The stress was high in places like Shivajinagar, where small houses have lots of members cooped up inside.
Apart from ensuring that law and order was maintained by keeping citizens indoors, we also had to ensure that people’s need were taken care of. Our 144 police stations in Bangalore transformed overnight into 24 hour soul kitchens! Anyone who walked into it was fed. Donations of groceries poured in, while out of job hotel chefs, IT professionals have doubled up as our cooks! Going over and beyond the Call of Duty, our Hoysala and dog squads have fed stray animals, birds and dogs. Also, as of date 270 Hoysalas have run over 7500 trips as pseudo ambulances, to transport people to hospitals for any medical emergencies.
It’s is such a unique moment in history that everybody wants to be a part of some constructive activity. I have been to several Mandirs, Masjids, Churches, Gurudwaras, Jain temples, all of them are closed but are distributing food while using technology to help the devout pray. In the end, people will definitely remember who has been kind to them.
All our life we were told, we need to work to stay alive, but today the situation is exactly the opposite. As they say in Hindi, “ Insaan ne jeene ke liye, kamana chhod diya”.
