New Alipore police station has introduced a system so that people don't have to visit markets to buy essentials goods like vegetables and groceries.

The police station has contacted vendors of essential items at New Alipore market and Gholsapur market. These vendors will take orders over phone and cops will arrange delivery by next morning.

Amit Shankar Mukherjee, inspector of the police station said, cops had created a database of vendors, along with their mobile numbers, and shared it on a WhatsApp group that has 3,760 residents of New Alipore as members.

“I created the WhatsApp group during my two-year stay at the police station. We believe members of the group will share the numbers with those outside the group but live in our jurisdiction. The idea is to avoid mass gatherings at markets when social distancing is a must,” Mukherjee said.

He said the police had been trying the model since Wednesday.

Another officer said a person had to place an order and keep one of the four sub-inspectors of the police station informed about it. “The WhatsApp message shared with residents contains the numbers of the four sub-inspectors who have to be alerted about the details of the order, along with the vendor’s name. These four officers are overseeing the operation.”

The numbers of the inspectors are: 9830752352; 9836575966; 9830233998; 8777249987. Each number has a WhatsApp.

The day after an order has been placed, officers from the police station pick up the goods from the vendor and deliver it to the resident and collect the money to pay the vendor. The goods are being carried mostly in rickshaws.

A sub-inspector said they had drawn circles in front of shops at the two markets to tell people how much distance they should maintain.

Earlier in the week, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said at Nabanna that the idea was to maintain a safe distance among people forced to step out of homes during the lockdown.

“But it is not possible for us to minutely track if people are maintaining the gap. Besides, we wanted to avoid any kind of gathering at markets; so, we worked out this home delivery model,” an officer said.

Inspector Mukherjee said the numbers of orders had been rising and both markets now sported a deserted look. He said cops at the police station had created another WhatsApp group, 'Home Delivery', among themselves to monitor how the system was operating.