Pramesh Jain
The city police on Saturday held a trial run for the upcoming complete lock down and cracked whip on the errant motorists moving around during the lock down without valid reasons .
The police also seized as many as 3000 vehicles and sealed 24 shops and booked them under Disaster Management Act,but also canned the uncouth motorists who tried to reason with the police.
Among the total 3,000 vehicles the city police seized 2723 bikes while the rest of them are rickshaws and cars,a senior police officer,said .
On Saturday there was slow moving traffic amid lockdown there was traffic jam near KR Circle, Corporation circle,Townhall so seeing the heavy traffic Commissioner of police Kamal Pant went on surprise city rounds to monitor the enforcement.
Kamal Pant started his surprise check from his office first he visited near BRV Junction in Shivajinagar limits,then to Hudson circle,KR Circle,Townhall junction,City market circle.
He himself with DCPs,as,Kuldeep Kumar Jain R,Dr Sanjeev M Patil,with ACPs,as,AB Sudhakar,P Ravi,PI, Kumaraswamy,and other staff were seen intensifying their vehicle checking in the presence of Commissioner of police.
Commissioner of police Kamal Pant was also seen checking the vehicles near BRV Junction and City Market junction and he led the enforcement to monitor the situation of traffic.
After inspecting the areas Kamal Pant addressing media said,Except emergency situation like vaccination and travelling, no one is allowed outside on the road during Lockdown, period,unless they have valid reasons,Mr.Pant said.
He said that the Saturday show is just a trail run and from Monday,the police are going to arrest people who are found on the road,he added .
The fresh guidelines issued keeping the safety of people in mind and any kind of violations will not be considering leniently,He added.
Mr.Pant later went around the city and led the enforcement at many areas.He stopped a couple passing by on the scooter and asked them why are they outside.He advise them to return home and stay at home with the family and warned to take action if they found moving again.
We are going to contain people coming to hotels and restaurants to get parcels.This would add more to the traffic and people start moving out.
Those who want to get parcel should come by walk and should not take vehicle outside,he said .
As soon as the message of Commissioner surprise inspection flashed,the jurisdictional police stepped up the security and barricaded the junctions, by lanes and flyovers.
Many motorists were caught by surprise as the police canned them and seized their vehicles. within few hours major roads across the city wore deserted look.
Many media personnel complained that their drivers are also detained by the police while they were returning home after dropping the journos home .
Parveen Sood, Director General and Inspector general of police tweeted by saying, Please take lockdown seriously in the overall interest of everyone’s safety…. or be ready to get your vehicle seized for next two weeks.Choice is yours.
He even warned violators Don’t argue endlessly with policemen. You may give 100 excuses for being on road; we give only one reason for staying home ie your safety. If we had choice we would also stay indoors and not lose 120 of our policemen to COVID while enforcing lockdown on roads!! DG IGP Praveen Sood tweeted.