Protests down by 11% in capital last year: Police

New Delhi, Jan. 14: The national capital, which at times a centre of social and political protests of diverse nature, witnessed has seen a decrease of more than 11 per cent of agitations last year compared to 2016, according to a Delhi Police report.

Delhi, being the seat of the Union government, witnesses a large number of demonstrations, rallies and marches, and dharnas by organisations from across India on political, social, labour, youth and students issues, the report said.

Also, the PCR unit attended over 14 crore distress calls and took 53,469 injured persons to hospitals for immediate medical aid in the last year.

The Police Control Room ( PCR) staff apprehended 260 persons, including 71 robbers, 23 bootleggers, and 43 snatchers, according to the statistics shared by the police.

“The PCR vans support the local traffic police in prevention of crime and detection and law and order arrangements on a daily basis,” said a senior police officer.

In 2017, a total of 9,546 different types of protests were held in Delhi, which was 11.47 per cent less than 10,784 protests witnessed in 2016, as per the Special Branch data.

The protests included 4,116 dharnas, 1,586 demonstrations, 320 processions, 443 marches and rallies, 751 meetings and 2,330 other miscellaneous programmes.

The National Green Tribunal banned all dharnas and protests at Jantar Mantar, a hotspot of agitations, in October last year, saying that they violated the environmental law. And this contributed to bringing down the number of protests, a police officer said.

The Special Branch is tasked with collection of of intelligence having a bearing on prevention of untoward incidents and maintenance of law and order in the city.