Odisha: Puri police launches special Covid enforcement drive in rural areas

BHUBANESWAR: The Puri district police have launched a special enforcement drive to ensure compliance of Covid-safety protocols and lockdown rules in rural areas. Of the 3,933 active cases in Puri district, around 70% are in rural areas.
“We have laid focus on enforcement in rural areas by involving the local panchayati raj members and communities. The sub-divisional police officers (SDPO)s and inspectors in-charge of local police stations have been visiting the rural areas and ensuring enforcement through the participation of local communities,” Puri SP, Kanwar Vishal Singh said.
From April 1 to May 29, the Puri district police have fined 20,337 people in rural areas and collected Rs 22.57 lakh for not wearing masks. Altogether 566 shops were sealed in the rural areas for alleged violation of lockdown and weekend shutdown norms.
Bulk of the enforcement drive was seen in Nimapada police sub-division. Total 7,371 were caught without masks and penalized Rs 8,79,500 between April 1 and May 29. Police had also sealed 125 shops for flouting lockdown restrictions.
Altogether Rs 5.57 lakh in fines were collected from 5,357 people towards violation of the mask rule in Pipili sub-division and 365 shops were sealed during the period. The police collected Rs 8.19 lakh in fines from 7,609 people for not wearing masks in Puri Sadar sub-division and sealed 76 shops since April 1 so far.
According to the government’s district dashboard, Pipili block currently has the highest 1001 active cases. It must be noted that Pipili assembly segment was earlier scheduled to go to poll on April 17 following the death of BJD’s sitting MLA Pradeep Maharathy. The scheduled by-poll was countermanded following the death of Congress nominee Ajit Mangaraj and again scheduled on May 13. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had further rescheduled the poll date to May 16 and put on hold the by-election after some days in the wake of alarming rise in Covid positive cases in the state.