VIJAYAWADA: Violators beware! Next time you defy lockdown enforced to contain the spread of coronavirus; you will land in a quarantine centre. With people continuing to defy lockdown restrictions despite the spike in positive cases in the city, Vijayawada city police on Monday sent seven violators to quarantine centres for 14 days to prevent people from roaming unnecessarily on road.
In an enforcement drive conducted at Krishna Lanka, which was declared a red zone, Krishna Lanka police detained seven persons and sent them to the quarantine centre for violating the prohibitory orders. Krishna Lanka alone reported over 40 positive cases in the past three days.
“Krishna Lanka has been in the news for all wrong reasons. The locality has population close to one lakh. The irony is no one seems to be worried about the pandemic. Instead of punishing them either by penalising them or seizing their vehicles, we sent them to quarantine centre as this will create some fear among residents. To instil discipline among them, we started sending people to quarantine centres for 14 days,” said South Zone Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) N Surya Chandra Rao.
Not just this time police imposed bizarre punishments on violators earlier too. A week ago, One Town traffic police caught the attention of public when they asked violators to write an imposition 500 times which read “I am sorry for coming out and will continue to follow lockdown till May 3”.
The South Zone ACP also said before sending these seven persons to quarantine centre, they also apprehended 23 persons on Monday afternoon and filed cases against them under relevant sections of the IPC.The police also conducted ‘vehicle march’ and awareness programmes in all red zones requesting the public not to violate lockdown restrictions.
Meanwhile, Krishna district SP M Ravindranath Babu declared Sukarlabad a red zone after one positive case was reported from the area.In Vinukonda of Guntur district, the police bundled two violators into an ambulance for moving on the road unnecessarily near the NTR Statue Centre.
When the police warned that they would be shifted to the quarantine centre, the youth immediately apologised and pledged not to violate lockdown norms. The police let the youth off after counselling them for an hour.