Coronavirus Lockdown News: A 21-day lockdown was imposed to curb the impact of the novel Coronavirus where people were asked to stay at their homes only. Only those in essential services or have a pass to move from one place to another are allowed on roads across the nation. However, many people have been found violating the lockdown orders in different states of the country. According to a report by PTI, around 10 foreigners were found roaming in Rishikesh area of Uttarakhand. These people were flouting the lockdown orders and were punished on the spot by the police. The report said that each one of the ten were asked to write an apology sentence (where they stated that they were sorry for not following the rules) 500 times.
In the state of Uttar Pradesh as well, more than 550 people were arrested in the last few days for violating the lockdown imposed, PTI said citing UP police. The report stated that apart from the arrests, as much as Rs 13 lakh was also collected from all the offenders in the state. In Maharashtra, the state government sent one of its top bureaucrats Amitabh Gupta on compulsory leave because he had granted permission to travel to DHFL promoters Dheeraj Wadhawan and Kapil Wadhawan. According to a tweet by Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, an enquiry will also be initiated regarding the matter.
In a shocking case that took place in Punjab, lockdown violators chopped off a policeman’s hand in Patiala as he tried to stop the armed violators to check for relevant passes, PTI reported. Meanwhile, in West Bengal, police came under the radar of the Union Home Ministry for “gradual dilution” of the lockdown. According to PTI, the Union Home Ministry questioned the opening of shops that sold non-essential items and permissions given to religious gatherings by the police.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had imposed a nationwide lockdown from March 25 to April 14 to minimise the impact of the deadly COVID-19 infection in India. The lockdown is likely to be increased for another two weeks till April 30. Currently, active cases of Coronavirus have crossed 8,000-mark and 273 people have died because of it.
