‘No leniency towards Covid rule violators’

Bhubaneswar: As the state government sounded a high alert about a possible surge in Covid-19 cases in June, Odisha Police have decided to adopt a policy of zero tolerance against people who ignore social distance norms, do not wear masks and promote large gatherings.
“We are not going to show leniency to violators. Massive enforcement activities will be carried out in June to ensure that the people obey social distancing norm, wear masks and avoid large congregations,” director general of police Abhay said after chief secretary Asit Tripathy read out the guidelines for unlock 1.0 on Monday.
The DGP said enforcement drives would be stepped up in Ganjam, Puri, Nayagarh, Khurda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore and Balangir districts where shutdowns have been ordered on Saturdays and Sundays in June. SPs in those districts have been asked to form special enforcement squads to take on the violators.
“The government has already said June is crucial to our fight against Covid-19. We have conducted a series of awareness drives to persuade people to wear masks and maintain safe distance from each other. Now it is time for strict enforcement as we found many people disobeying the government’s lockdown guidelines,” Abhay said.
The head of the police department said the enforcement drive involved realisation of fines, registration of cases and arrests. Police said first-time offenders would be fined whereas habitual violators might face arrest. “We will strictly enforce night curfew from 7 pm to 5 am although the Centre advised night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am. Our personnel will remain on roads, conduct night blocking and enforce the rule. Movement of people for non-essential activities is prohibited during the curfew. Only medicine stores will remain open,” Abhay said.
The DGP expressed concern that many people misused the earlier relaxations granted for livelihood purposes. “We found that people behaved carelessly and organised functions by ignoring social distance norms. Police stations have been asked to raid such parties and act against the violators,” Abhay said.
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