ROURKELA: Police enforced the COVID-19 lockdown to ensure residents stay in their homes and avoid congregation at shops of essential commodities on Tuesday.
When the daily market witnessed large gathering in the morning, police stepped in to send people back home.
They also visited shops exempted from the lockdown and asked owners to limit crowd and implement the norms of social distancing.
Similarly, police teams at Uditnagar, Bisra Square and Traffic Tower areas inquired commuters about the reasons of stepping out of homes and those failing to give convincing reply, were forced to return homes.
DSP PK Mishra said police are monitoring movement of residents on roads and ensuring that shops in the exempted list remain open.
He said adequate police deployment has been done at strategic locations and PCR vans are also on the job to implement lockdown guidelines.
Meanwhile, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) has geared up to enforce the lockdown. On Monday, the RMC Commissioner Dibyajyoti Parida had held a meeting with the Civil Supplies authorities and traders of essential commodities to prevent black marketing of essential commodities.
RMC sources informed that railway passengers who entered the city on Monday were identified and asked to stay in home isolation.