CHENNAI: City roads wore a deserted look owing to the intense lockdown on Sunday. Vehicles, except those belonging to frontline warriors and ambulance services, kept off the roads. The government had earlier announced that on June 21 and 28, barring milk vendors, pharmacies, hospitals and ambulance services, no other service or shop would be permitted.
In the last 10 days, the Chennai city police seized as many as 52,234 vehicles and booked cases against 60,131 people for roaming on the streets violating Section 144. Cases have been booked against another 24,704 people for not wearing masks and not maintaining social distance. In places like Tondiarpet, Royapuram and Vyasarpadi, where the number of COVID cases is high, the police have booked at least 20,000 cases during the past 10 days.
Police seized 58 vehicles of people who had used fake passes and duplicate identity cards to roam on the streets. Talking to the media, Chennai City Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan said, “Some people had fake ID cards or used stickers claiming to be journalists, corporation staff and doctors on their vehicles. We have booked cases against all of them and seized their vehicles.
We have successfully crossed 10 days of the lockdown and have only two more days to go. We request the public to understand that the lockdown was announced only for their good and cooperate with us.”
Vehicle checking, which was intense during the morning hours on Sunday, slowly reduced around noon owing to showers in several parts of the city. The areas that fall under the jurisdiction of Chennai police in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts were completely barricaded and entry was restricted.