New Delhi: Police officers up to the rank of Joint Commissioners will now have to do night duty to ensure maintenance of law and order in the national capital.
The move comes within a week of Alok Kumar Verma taking over as the chief of Delhi Police.
Initially, officers up to the rank of Assistant Commissioners (ACP) had to do periodic night patrolling duty, a rule whose ambit was later extended to cover Deputy Commissioners (DCP) and Additional Deputy Commissioners of the police districts, a senior official said.
Such officers are called night (gazetted officers) GOs and each police district has a mobile number assigned to the night GO so that a common man in distress can have direct access to the officer.
At a meeting earlier this week, it was decided to extend the rule to cover Additional Commissioners (Additional CP) and even Joint Commissioners (Joint CP), the official said.
The Joint CPs, who are in-charge of police ranges with around two DCP/Additional CP-rank officers under them, will be supervising their duties as night GOs. For this, the Joint CPs will have to be physically available and commit themselves to full-time night duty, as instructed by the new police chief.
As per the rosters currently prepared in each district, ACP-rank officers are usually assigned night duty up to twice a week, depending upon the demographic factors in the areas under their jurisdiction, number of officials working under them and the crime rate.
A DCP-rank officer may have to be on night patrol for up to twice a month, depending upon similar factors.
“For Joint Commissioners, they will also have to do at least one full-time night patrolling in a month and prepare a report, as per the new order,” the official added.
PTI
