Corporation constitutes panel to ensure safety norms at city markets

Chennai

According to the Corporation, 81 market regulating committees have been formed. “The committees consist of civic body engineers at divisional level, who will lead the committee, local police officials, representatives from the Fisheries Department and the concerned markets. The committees will coordinate precautionary measures against COVID-19 in the markets,” it said in a statement.

Apart from these committees, 32 teams consisting of officials from the Revenue and Disaster Management departments have also been constituted to ensure taluk-level monitoring of shops and markets.

“The teams of the Revenue Department will monitor social distancing, usage of masks, availability of sanitisers apart from the safety of vendors as well as the customers. If any shop is found violating the safety norms, it will be sealed for 14 days and fine will be collected,” it added.

Apart from 24x7 monitoring, the civic body will also install CCTV cameras in the markets and link them to the local police station to ensure that social distancing norms were followed. “We will not hesitate to shut down markets if they violate norms. Safety is the most important,” warned Commissioner G Prakash.

Banks told to suspend some operations:

The Commissioner added that banks in the city have been asked to suspend unnecessary operations to avoid overcrowding. “During a meeting with bank representatives, instructions were given to suspend activities like passbook printing. We have also asked them to provide pension at doorstep. We will send them a proper communication under the Disaster Management Act,” Prakash added.