A day after Delhi Traffic Police was restricted to fine people for COVID-19 norms violation, Delhi Police on Wednesday ordered all police stations to focus on their primary job, that is crime control.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) Chinmoy Biswal issued an order saying that Delhi Police will deploy dedicated teams in each police station to check violations of COVID-19 norms as cases are rising in the city again.

He said all police stations will deploy such team in uniform at one location from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. “In view of the spread of COVID-19 in Delhi, each police station shall detail one dedicated team comprising an upper subordinate and a lower subordinate to report to one location in their respective district to prosecute persons who violate protocols such as not wearing masks, not maintaining social distancing, and spitting etc.,” the order said.

Under supervision

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 respective inspector.

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 protocol. The primary attention shall be regulating traffic in view of near normalcy of traffic on the roads.

All challan books which are thus required by district/traffic policemen shall be taken back and kept in safe custody under the knowledge of DCPs concerned, he said in the order.

According to a data shared by Delhi Police, until 4 p.m. on September 8, it has issued 2,77,131 challans for not wearing mask, 2,434 for spitting in public places, and 26,116 for violating social distancing.