JOIN USDelhi Police personnel, who have been on duty during the multiple protests here against the amended citizenship act, said they want normalcy to be restored in the national capital soon.
Some of the policemen who were deployed at Jantar Mantar said they were not even able to go on a tea break or use the restroom.
A constable from Parliament Street police station said, "The anti-CAA protests have made us work almost non-stop. The entire police station staff has been deployed for the protests keeping all other cases aside. I am at the protest spot for six days. I leave home at around 7 am on one meal."
Many other policemen from the constabulary also echoed the same sentiments.
A constable from Connaught Place police station said, "We are given orders to reach the spot at 8 am before the protests begin. We are here throughout the day without a break for even half an hour. The administration is getting packed food for us and sometimes when food does not arrive, we have to fetch our own food. There is no drinking water."
A head constable from Parliament Street police station said leaves have been cancelled.
"We have standing instructions to not move from the spot. The seniors are denying even an hour of a break to travel home for household emergency or work. Yesterday, I barely reached home for some emergency work when I was called back to the police station after 19 hours of duty."
The policemen claimed they are working for more than 20 hours in a day for the last six days.
The women police personnel said they have been waiting for normalcy to return more than anyone.
"We are not complaining about the duty hours but the situation is difficult for us too. I was sent to Jantar Mantar on December 3 when the DCW chief sat on protest. I left at 3 am and was back on duty at 8 am the next day. We can't even take a washroom break without a reliever."
DCP (New Delhi) Eish Singhal supported the policemen and said they have lost the count of the number of work hours.
"They are right that there are no defined duty hours since last one week. The women police are facing more issues with undefined hours. We are giving food packets to the policemen but there could be cases where it didn't reach them in this present situation," Singhal told PTI.
The senior officers are also on duty but the lower rung policemen are more affected, he said.
"Even after the protest gets over, they still have to wait to hand over their weapons at respective police stations and only then they are free to go home and with all the procedure getting over it is definitely around 20 hours a day," he added.