Police to act tough against violators during unlock 1.0 in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: As the state government sounded high alert about possible surge in Covid-19 positive cases in June, Odisha police have decided to adopt 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 mask and avoid large congregations,” director general of police Abhay said after the chief secretary Asit Tripathy read out stricter guidelines for unlock 1.0 on Monday.
The DGP said enforcement drives will be stepped up in Ganjam, Puri, Nayagarh, Khurda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Balangir districts where special 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.
“Government already said that the June is very crucial in our fight against Covid-19. We conducted a series of awareness drives to persuade people to wear mask and maintain safe distance from each other. Now it is time for strict enforcement as we found many people showed negligence to government’s lockdown guidelines,” Abhay said.
On Monday evening, police across the state swung into action and cracked the whip on violators of night curfew. A large numbers of people were fined for stepping out of homes during the night curfew.
The head of the police department said the enforcement drive involves realization of fine, registration of cases and arrest. Police said first-time offenders will be fined whereas the habitual violators may face arrest. “We will strictly enforce the night curfew from 7 pm to 5 am. Though Centre advised night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am, our state government has decided to impose curfew from 7 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 strictly prohibited during the night curfew. Only medicine stores will remain open,” Abhay said.
The DGP expressed concern that many people misused the earlier relaxations granted for livelihood purpose and participated in large gatherings and recreational activities. “We found that people behaved carelessly and organised recreational functions by ignoring the social distance norms. Police stations have been asked to raid such parties and act tough against the violators,” Abhay said.