Covid norms violation: Over 2.8K cases booked in Chennai

A one-day complete lockdown to tackle the rapidly rising COVID-19 cases was enforced across Tamil Nadu on Sunday while police, local and health authorities stepped up measures to check violations.

Be it arterial roads, bylanes, markets or malls, public places in the State were deserted but for the movement of people, cargo trucks and other vehicles linked to essential services like milk distribution or in connection with purposes allowed by the government including health issues. Healthcare professionals and workers, sanitary and civic personnel, continued their routine work.

However, passengers arriving at Central and Egmore railway stations faced a lot of hardship in trying to reach their destinations in the absence of bus services. Auto rickshwas and cab services charged exorbitant rates. Barring flights, suburban and other train operations, bus and other public transport services including the Metro Rail were suspended. Suburban trains were operated here with 50 per cent occupancy.

City police on Sunday booked 2,849 cases of violations till 2 pm on Sunday. While 612 cases were booked under Section 259 of the IPC ( Wandering without reason), 2,176 cases were booked for not wearing masks and 61 cases for not maintaining social distancing. A total of 28 shops which were open violating COVID norms were shut by the Corporation staff and as many as 726 vehicles, 662 of them two-wheelers, were seized.

Additional Commissioner N Kannan told DT Next that the complete lockdown went off mostly without hitches with cooperation from the public. “We introduced helplines for both public and police personnel and received over 100 calls which were addressed immediately,” he said. As many as 11,000 police personnel had been posted to enforce the full lockdown on Sunday and there were 189 checkpoints.