Delhi Police interacts with senior citizens on 'Elderly Day'

New Delhi, October 1

CP Delhi Rakesh Asthana held a hybrid (physical & web based) seminar “Delhi Police Live with Elderly Citizens” on the occasion of International Day Of Older Persons.

Around 20 senior citizens, mostly representatives of their RWA/MWA  attended the seminar in the conference hall. 

The programme was held under the chairmanship of Devesh Chandra Srivastva Spl. CP Crime.  Dr. Vartika Nanda, Head, Department of Journalism, Lady Sri Ram College for Women, an expert in the field of Social Services was the Moderator.

Devesh Chandra Srivastva, Spl. CP started the seminar by wishing a happy & healthy life to attendees and stated that safety and security of vulnerable sections, especially senior citizens is top most priority of Delhi Police. 

He shared a brief of various initiatives taken by Delhi Police for senior citizens and informed that it is every Beat Officer’s duty to meet every registered senior citizen in their respective beat at least once a fortnight. 

The senior citizens were informed about Senior Citizen Helpline – 1291 and about various Delhi Police apps for the safety and security of its citizens. It was further urged that senior citizens must get police verification of their domestic helps/tenants.

A relation, based on mutual respect was emphasized to be maintained between senior citizens and Beat Officers. Sharing a fact that resettlement colonies have more CCTVs than posh colonies, Shri Srivastva also briefly described the Safe City Project of Delhi Police in which it is intended to cover the whole city with CCTVs. However, as it takes time to roll out the scheme in all parts of Delhi, it was advised that MWAs & RWAs should team up under our Nigehbaan scheme to install CCTVs at maximum locations. It was advised to invest in safety by installing grills, magic eyes, door chain and other electronic devices to keep the dwellings secure from intruders. 

Srivastva also discussed various provisions of Senior Citizens (Safety & Security) Act enacted by the Govt. for fulfillment of emotional and social needs of senior citizens and appropriate forum which at which these issues are taken. In the end he again emphasized that mutual trust & respect between the police officers and senior citizen can overcome all the difficulties, though Delhi Police is committed in keeping our senior citizens safe and happy. 

Shalini Singh, Jt. CP/HQ, who also attended the seminar as senior panelist informed the attendees about various humanitarian tasks performed by Delhi Police field staff during the two deadly waves of Covid-19. 

Dr. Vartika Nanda, Head, Department of Journalism, Lady Sriram College took issues related to some senior citizens who attended the seminar live. During this two-way interaction, the participants put forth certain queries related to various concerns of senior citizens. Most of the issues revolved around local problems like unauthorized parking or congregation of miscreants in localities and the same were duly addressed by the panelists. It was observed that the issues were related to working of civic agencies, however it was assured that Delhi Police will make all possible arrangements to take them to appropriate forum.