The policemen donated Rs 1,000 each for the cause after a discussion on a WhatsApp group

When policemen turn Good Samaritans, the result can be nothing less than exemplary. A group of 150 policemen have come together to help the patients in the local government hospital in drought-affected Latur. The initiative that will roll out on Friday also includes the doctors, nurses, hospital staff and visiting family members of the patients.



An advertisement about the water donation initiative

Cops from the 1989 batch started this noble mission after a colleague posted a message on their WhatsApp group. Later, a group member Rajkumar Sonawane proposed if they could donate mineral water to patients in the Latur government hospital.

Senior Inspector Anil Patil of Pune Police’s Anti Extortion cell said, “Two years back, we had formed this group. On April 2, Sanjay Pande, currently posted in Nagpur messaged about Latur, after which we planned to help the drought-affected people.”

They donated Rs 1,000 each, which was eventually transferred to the bank account of Sonawane, who is currently posted in Latur with the Traffic department. A sum total of R1.5 lakh has been collected till Monday.

The amount will be given to a mineral water distributor based in Latur, who will provide around 200 jars of 11 litres of water for the hospital. Nikhil Chitte, the assigned mineral water distributor, has designed the jar in such a way that no one can steal it and a continuous supply of cold water is ensured.

“I learnt about the drought situation in Latur through newspapers. I then dropped a message in the group asking for ideas of how we can help the people. Initially we had planned to adopt a village but backed out due to political interference. We wanted to be neutral,” said Pande.

Sonawane shared with

mid-day about the water scarcity issue in the government hospital. “Whenever I took any accused to the government hospital for a check-up, the medical officer Shailendra Chavan always complained of water crisis. I found out around 400 patients are admitted in this hospital. There are two buildings in this hospital and we planned to adopt one, in which generally 200 patients are admitted.”

The patients suffer from a lot of diseases that are due to lack of proper drinking water. Things might change now.

Medical officer Shailendra Chavan said, “We have enough stock of medicine but not good quality water. This is really a great initiative and we welcome this.”