Delhi: ‘Dil ki police’ turns saviour for the clueless

NEW DELHI: After nearly an hour at the Ambedkar Stadium bus terminal, from where she was promised a bus to Mayur Vihar, Yachna Nair, 47, finally lost her cool when informed that she would be dropped at the northeast district magistrate’s office at Nand Nagri, 12 km from her home. “I have been stranded for more than 40 days in Mumbai, I’m not feeling well and now you want me to walk with my daughter to Mayur Vihar in this heat? My husband is a heart patient and can’t come to pick us up,” an irate Nair shouted at a Delhi Transport Corporation official.This was when a high-ranking Delhi Police officer stepped in.
“DTC only has permission to ply to DM offices,” the police officer explained to Nair and suggested that the women could be dropped — as an exception — by a police van. Nair’s daughter Ashima, an aspiring singer, is engaged to TV and film actor Ankit Shah and mother-daughter duo was in Mumbai to finalise arrangements for the June wedding. While waiting for the PCR van, Nair’s husband called to say he had managed to arrange a cab to pick the two women from the terminal.
The police officer said, “Officially, I shouldn’t even be here because this area is not under my jurisdiction. I was trying to ensure smooth transfer of passengers from trains to shuttle buses and wanted to check if the passengers had boarded buses for their homes.”
The officer was one of the higher ranks among the 100 Delhi Police personnel deployed to help rail passengers arriving and departing from Delhi.
Akash Verma, who had arrived from Mumbai, was grateful for the police assistance. “If not for Delhi Police, I would have no clue where to board a bus for my home in Punjabi Bagh,” he said. Policemen could be seen helping senior citizens and women with children into buses, sometimes assisting them with their luggage or offering them drinking water. On Thursday, Delhi Police lived up to its newly coined slogan of 'Dil Ki Police, Delhi Police'.
“We have been at the station since 5am, arranging parking for DTC buses and private vehicles and coordinating with Railways and DTC,” said Harendra Kumar Singh, DCP (Railways). “We assisted people disembarking from trains to board the shuttle buses,” he said. Singh added that inconvenience due to lack of public transport had prompted him to take up the matter with the authorities.