As people continue to loiter on the roads without a valid reason despite lockdown orders, police officers in the city have resorted to novel methods to make people adhere to the law and realise the importance of staying indoors.
At 1.30 p.m on Monday, the scene at Puzhal Camp road was like that of a gym. More than 15 people formed a line under the scorching sun. A woman sub-inspector was in command. Standing before them she gave a demonstration on how to do half- squats. In the next 20 minutes, she took them to task by commanding them to repeat the half-squats.
Jayanthi, a sub-inspector of police, said, “These people don’t understand the seriousness of a lockdown. They just saunter out without any purpose. Some of they say they came out from their houses to visit their friends or other such weak excuses. We have to effectively implement law and order by adopting these kinds of methods.”
In Ennore Wimco Nagar, police caught people who were on the roads. They were made to do sit ups. While doing the squats, they repeated, “Hereafter, we will not roam anywhere. We will obey the orders of the government.”
Another group in Maduvoyal police station were taken to task by police personnel. Here they repeated, “We will cooperate with the police and government authorities. We will wear masks,” while repeating the squats.
Red Hills Inspector P. Jawahar has adopted yet another innovative way to make people follow the law. People were gathered together on roadside, they were asked to form three lines and were given the task of holding placards stating that they will obey prohibitory orders.
Police personnel said to the violators, “You are all well-educated and should realise your mistake hereafter. You should go and tell people in the neighbourhood that people should not step out unnecessarily when a lockdown is in place and the disease may spread faster if people saunter out.”
One man among the crowd recently returned from a foreign country and he was asked stay at home in quarantine. Police personnel warned him for coming out despite being in quarantine. One police personnel asked him, “Why you are coming out sir? You have been to foreign countries where you obeyed the law. But here, you don’t?. Sir you are educated and why did you come out, that too without any mask?” He was whisked away to the police station and a case was booked against him for violating the law.
Assistant Commissioner, Flower Bazaar, Lakshmanan has another method to handle violators. He made them read out an undertaking under the scorching sun, stating that they would not come out unnecessarily hereafter during the lockdown period.
Published - March 31, 2020 12:33 pm IST