In New Alipore, these uniformed men in white, have never been more welcome. For the past two days, they have been coming in paddled rickshaws, cycle vans, auto rickshaws and police vehicles, not to arrest anyone but to deliver fruits and vegetables, fish, eggs and poultry.
The New Alipore police station has started a home delivery service for essentials in its area for all, to stop people from crowding in the New Alipore and Gholshapur markets that come within its purview.
For some time, the New Alipore police station has been connected with almost every household, through Whatsapp groups that it has created blockwise. When crisis struck and lockdown came into force, the cops decided to utilise this data bank to send message to householders that they needn’t step out but follow a few simple steps to order their daily needs and the cops will deliver these at their doorsteps.
Four Whatsapp numbers belonging to four officers have been earmarked for home delivery. Householders have been provided with numbers of specific groceries, vendors for fish, eggs, milk etc, from the Gholshapur and New Alipore markets. They have to call these vendors and place their orders and get an order number. In the next step, they have to text on Whatsapp their names, addresses and order numbers to any of the four officers and the orders will be delivered by 10am the next day.
“We have started with a 24- hour gap deliberately because we are not a home delivery aggregator. Moreover, everything falls in place once things start and even on the third day, we have delivered to 60 families, which is what we are doing on an average,” said Amit Shankar Mukherjee, officer in charge of the police station.
“We were so relieved when we got the message and believe me, it’s working!” said Dipti Shah, an event manager in Shree Krishna Gardens. She has encouraged others in her apartment to avail the facility too. Bijay Lenka, an entrepreneur on Block P had stocked up till Sunday and will now order for the next week through the cops. “I believe the coronavirus reality is bringing the world closer…it’s a new happy reality,” he said.
Source: Times of India
