To discourage heavy vehicular traffic on Pune’s roads in the wake of the COVID-19 contagion, the Pune Police on Monday announced the complete stoppage of all vehicular movement, barring those engaged in dispensing essential services, on city roads till the end of the month.
Issuing an order under Section 144 (1) (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Shisve said all vehicles — including private ones, all types of rickshaws and app-based cab aggregators like Ola and Uber — would be prohibited from plying on the city’s roads from 6 p.m. on Monday till March 31.
Only those vehicles engaged in dispensing essential services, including those belonging to media personnel or government vehicles, would be excluded from the ambit of the ban.
The police action came after roads witnessed heavy traffic despite appeals to citizens by the authorities to confine themselves indoors.
Earlier in the day, Dr. K. Venkatesham, Commissioner of Police, Pune, had hinted at the vehicular ban on Twitter. “Vehicle movement will be stopped completely in the evening today pl note…rqst [request] to reduce vehicle movement till formal order. Grocery, medicine , milk, vegetables, chicken, mutton may be taken from neighbourhood (walking distance) pl do not plan for inter district vehicle movement. Stay home is mantra,” Dr. Venkatesham had said in a series of tweets.
While the Janata Curfew on Sunday had swept off virtually every two- and four- wheeler off the city’s densely crowded streets, scores of private vehicles were seen back on the road on Monday with many citizens behaving as if it were business as usual.
In stark defiance of government exhortations to self-quarantine to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, teenagers were seen playing cricket on open stretches, while private vehicles were seen moving on thoroughfares.
Earlier, Dr. Venkatesham had said that 136 police teams had been formed to check on people who had been asked to quarantine themselves at home.
He had said there were some cases of missing home quarantine people, who had returned from foreign countries in the past fortnight. Dr. Venkatesham warned that these people would face punitive action if they failed to report to the police.
Till now, 28 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Pune district, one of whom is in the intensive care unit and is said to be critical.
