49 cop checkposts in twin cities to enforce night curfew
BHUBANESWAR: The twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack together put up 49 police check posts at vantage points as the state began night curfew in all districts from Saturday.
“Mostly, police will be deployed at the check posts but our squads will also be present. Except those falling under exempted categories, people won’t be allowed to move after 9 pm,” said BMC commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhury.
Weekend shutdown has started in 10 western districts bordering Chhattisgarh and the timing of night curfew in those districts has been changed from 10 pm-5am to 6pm-5am. There is no weekend shutdown in rural areas of these 10 districts. In the other 20 districts, including the twin cities, night curfew will be in force from 9 pm to 5 am every day.
“It’s again time for people to return home early. The restrictions will keep us protected. It is always better to adhere to norms,” said Binay Panigrahi, a resident of Palasuni here.
Anticipating that they would be asked to close their shops an hour before the actual curfew time at 9 pm, vegetable vendors on Saturday were seen starting business early in the afternoon in both cities. Because of the night curfew, Jagannath Temple in Puri will close every day at 8 pm, an hour before enforcement of curfew. Twin cities police commissioner Soumendra Priyadarshi said his force’s morale is high. “Unlike last year, fear about Covid among police has subsided, which is good. We want people to obey norms and stay indoors during the night curfew,” he told TOI.