BHUBANESWAR: In the heart of Ganjam, where the coronavirus battle is raging, police are in no mood to lower their guard. Not after being hit by the Covid crisis. Even loss of a colleague has not deterred them. In last three weeks, 42 personnel of Aska Police Station alone have contracted the infection, yet the police station is up and running. Lockdown enforcement is underway and so is duty at various Covid care centres.
The Aska PS has a sanctioned strength of 45 which includes an inspector, four sub-inspectors (SIs), as many assistant sub-inspectors, four havildars and 32 constables. Another 10 home guards are attached to the station.
However, policemen, one after another, tested positive which reduced strength of the police station to 13 by Monday but the spirit of the remaining staff remained unaffected as they continued to perform their duties. On the line of duty, two ASIs, two havildars, 10 constables, 16 sepoys and 12 home guards contracted the infection.
Police suspect the personnel may have caught the infection during duty at temporary medical camps and while carrying out enforcement activities like maintaining social distancing at the market places in the Aska notified area council.
“We continued to report to duty and took necessary precautions while maintaining social distancing, random testing and contact tracing,” said IIC Prashant Kumar Sahoo. The police station premises are sanitized twice a day.
All duties like availability of diary charge officer at the police station, patrolling, enforcing Covid-19 guidelines and action against mask and social distancing violations were carried out during the period. Such services are pivotal and enforcement cannot be halted during the pandemic, he said.
“Four constables and two home guards remained in quarantine, recovered and returned to frontline duty on Tuesday while an ASI started duty on Wednesday. The total manpower now stands at 20,” said the IIC who has led by example.
Ganjam SP Brijesh Kumar Rai is proud that Aska police station has presented a role model. The personnel did not even avail their week-off during this time of the crisis. “It is praise worthy the way IIC Sahoo and his team is working,” he said.Rai is mobilizing additional manpower to the police station for sharing their workload and carrying out enforcement activities more vigorously.
Besides Aska, 34 personnnel from Bhanjanagar and 32 from Buguda also contracted the virus. So far, 155 officers and personnel have been infected by Covid-19 in Ganjam police district and 110 have recovered.