Residents of a society near Sinhagad Road visit Haveli police station with packets of food

PUNE: A number of citizens across Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad are providing food, water and other essentials to policemen manning the roads. Food packets, dry snacks and water are being distributed among on-duty policemen at checkpoints, chowkies and police stations.

Jai Ganesh Group from Kachi Ali in Guruwar Peth has been serving breakfast to policemen in and around Swargate for the last 4-5 days. “Our wives cook the food at home and we go out to deliver. Six of us go to deliver on different days in rotation. So far, we have prepared and served poha, idli sambar, upma, and other snacks. We have sought permission from the police to distribute food between 8.30am and 12.30pm,” said Chetan Lodha .

Lodha added that the initiative took root because the group wanted to do something for the police. “After serving the police, if we have any food leftover, we serve it with tea to employees of petrol pumps and street dwellers,” he added.

Apulki Group from Sinhagad Road has also been engaged in delivering snacks and water to the police personnel on duty. “The police personnel are standing at assigned checkpoints for a long duration. They hardly go home. While they do carry tiffin, if they get hungry again, they may have nothing to eat. We are distributing dry snacks like chakli, chivda, shankarpali, biscuits, wafers, pedha, barfi, chikki, and many other items, among the personnel,” explained Sameer Rupade , coordinator of Apulki Group.

The group delivers the eatables to 12 checkpoints, three police chowkies and one police station along Sinhagad Road. “We have been distributing the snacks for three days. On Friday, we distributed 700-800 water bottles. We are also providing garbage bags to the personnel to dispose the waste,” said Rupade.

A policeman on duty at Dange Chowk in Chinchwad said, “Several people give us tea, biscuits and snacks on a daily basis. They also feed the municipal workers if there are any in the area. We are thankful to such persons and organisations, who are providing for us.”

