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Blasting the stereotypical image of cops being brutal, abrasive and insensitive, some police personnel have been doing yeoman’s service to needy people by either providing food or ensuring transit to their destinations or both. And yes, they did not wait for government funds to undertake the humane and charitable acts.
Ironically, these good Samaritans generally go unnoticed. In Lucknow, Kaiserbagh bus stand outpost in-charge Pawan Mishra emerged as the providential provider for over a hundred stranded people, including women and children in the true sense.
After trying two major bus stations in the city, some hapless workers and their families trudged from Sarojininagar to Kaiserbagh bus station late Thursday night. Most of them used to work in industrial units but did not leave for their native places fearing deduction of wages. Hoping against hope, they enquired about any possible mode of transport to reach their destinations only to be turned away by the Roadways staff.
And not without reasons. Their diverse places of nativity surfaced as a major problem. While a group had to go to Gonda, Bahraich, another group was headed to Siddharthnagar and Basti. The third batch wanted to reach Meerut, Bareilly, Rampur etc. while members of another group were residents of Kanpur Dehat, Mahoba and Banda.
It was then that one of the desperate youths approached Mishra and narrated their hopeless plight. Assuring to help them, Mishra arranged for some quick snack and tea and ensured that they slept under a roof.
On Friday morning, bus station outpost in-charge Pawan Mishra spoke to UPSRTC assistant regional  manager of Kaiserbagh bus station, Sabita Singh, and requested her to arrange transit for the hapless people.
Later, Mishra set up a makeshift kitchen outside the small outpost and the cops with the help of some locals got busy preparing lunch for the marooned people.
On her part, the assistant regional  manager promptly took up the process of sanction of special buses with her seniors and by 1 pm, five buses covering all the routes were sanctioned by the Roadways.
The police officer got the travel clearance fast-tracked and finally these stranded people were ready for their homeward journey.
But before they boarded their respective buses, Mishra ensured that the passengers had a wholesome meal of ‘poori-sabzi’.
Elsewhere, outside Charbagh railway station, at loco police outpost of Hussainganj, a kitchen has been started by SHO of Hussainganj, Anjani Kumar Pandey, since the night a national lockdown was clamped.
Cops on duty, men and women in uniform were seen distributing poori-sabzi and water bottles outside the outpost to about 70-odd destitutes, migrant workers and menial labours around 2 pm on Friday.
When enquired, Pandey said that most of these people depended on the railway station for their livelihood.
“While some did menial jobs, others just lived on alms. But now that trains have been suspended they do not anything to eat and nowhere to go. There are some who just could make it to the station before the lockdown and were stranded. As fellow humans we could not just allow them to starve. So we started a small  kitchen at the outpost and started giving them two meals a day for sustenance,” he said.
On being asked about the funds needed for the work and the time frame of the charity, the inspector said, “We pooled some money and we will keep on taking care of them at least till the lockdown is over.”
Similarly in Varanasi, ADG Zone Braj Bhushan has started community kitchen from the mess of police stations and outposts and it is catering to poor people living in shanties and those who have been stranded.