The Chittoor district police administration has intensified vigil at the Nangili and Cheekalabailu border check-posts as Bengaluru and some districts in Karnataka are bracing up for lockdown from midnight on Tuesday.
Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar ordered deployment of additional personnel at the check-posts to handle the possible increase in the inter-State movement into the district.
Officials maintained that the reports of Bengaluru going in for lockdown due to alarming spike in COVID-19 cases there would not have any impact at the border check-posts, as the public movement had already thinned down by more than 80% compared to the pre-lockdown period.
APSRTC Regional Manager, Tirupati, T. Chengal Reddy said the corporation would be suspending all the 30 inter-State bus services to Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka from its depots of Tirupati, Chittoor, Madanapalle and Piler, till further negotiations between the two States. “Similarly, 26 services of the KSRTC to Tirupati and Puttur would be stopped during the current lockdown there,” he said.
The official said that there had been a drastic fall in the occupancy rate in the corporation buses, while even the private transport was hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are not expecting any commotion at bus stations as was the case during the lockdown-I period. The services will be suspended from Tuesday midnight. Services with a facility to complete both the upward and downward journeys before midnight would be operated,” Mr. Reddy said.
Surveillance
Meanwhile, the Deputy SP (Madanapalle) A. Ravi Manohar Achari said the border check-post in the sub-division was kept under strict surveillance and the inter-State vehicular movement would be under check till the situation eased out. He said that patrolling would so be intensified on the porous rural roads to prevent unauthorised entry into the district.