Finding it tough to keep vehicles impounded from lockdown violators safe, the city police are now guarding them round the clock.
With strict lockdown norms in force, impounded vehicles are piling up on road sides or are parked in places near the police station. “Keeping them safe is a challenge. All vehicles cannot be kept on the station premises. So we park them on school grounds and Corporation property premises. We maintain a register of such vehicles and policemen are guarding them round the clock,” said a senior officer.
Since the complete lockdown came into effect on May 14, the police have been impounding vehicles. In seven days until Friday, the city police booked 21,346 cases for lockdown violations and impounded 25,465 vehicles from motorists.
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A senior traffic police officer said, “Our efforts to curb the movement of people on roads has yielded good results. On Tuesday, personnel stopped vehicles on Anna Salai and insisted on e-registration. The next day, the number of vehicles plying on the road without e-registration or for emergency reduced substantially. People are not venturing out unnecessarily.” Police on arterial roads have been impounding at least 100 vehicles daily which are parked on roads adjacent to police stations.
“Earlier, we used to impose a ₹500 fine. It was not effective. So we changed our strategy and have started impounding vehicles, besides booking a case under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the IPC. Such impounded vehicles are released only after four days,” said an ACP in Adyar police district.
However, the police in some parts of the city release impounded vehicles the same day or next day.
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A release from the DGP said the number of cases booked in the State for not wearing masks since April 8 had touched 10,52,686.
As many as 41,878 cases were booked against persons not maintaining physical distance norms during this period.