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Act with compassion,High Court tells cops, Corporation
The Police department and Municipal Corporation should exercise their powers with a sense of sympathy and compassion while dealing with the residents of the areas that are declared as containment areas or red zone, said the Madras High Court.
By
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Chennai
A division bench comprising Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana made the observation while hearing a plea moved by ‘Traffic’ KR Ramaswamy about the alleged exercise of executive powers by the State administration, including police personnel, who are deployed at various areas in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu.
The petitioner had submitted that after an area is declared as containment area after one or two residents are found to be infected by coronavirus, the entire area is sealed, causing a lot of inconvenience to the others living in the neighbourbood.
After recording the government pleader’s submission that the State has issued guidelines on declaring containment areas and the manner in which essentials and medical emergency can be accessed, the bench sought the various tate authorities, including Police department and Municipal Corporation, to exercise their powers in a more appropriate and balanced manner.
“No unnecessary inconvenience and harassment should be caused to the residents who may not be affected by coronavirus as of now, but incidentally residing in an area in which some cases of coronavirus positive are found,” the bench held.
Also, seeking to deal with the persons who are not duly complying with the directions of the State, the bench led by Justice Vineet Kothari said, “ Generally speaking, we would expect a sympathetic and compassionate view by the person who are manning the containment areas, and these general observations should be conveyed to all the concerned persons on day-today basis as it is more a psychological issue rather than a specific case to be dealt with in a specific manner.”
The plea is set to be taken on May 14 for further hearing.
445 containment areas in city
The number of containment areas has gone up to 445 localities within the Greater Chennai Corporation as on Friday. Among the 15 city Corporation zones, Royapuram has the most number of such areas while Perungudi has the least. Royapuram zone has 90 containment areas, followed by Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zone with 79. Teynampet zone has 39 containment areas while Valasaravakkam has 45 and Tondiarpet has 42 containment areas. Perungudi zone has only 6 containment areas, which is the lowest among the 15 zones. Meanwhile, the civic body has lifted restrictions from 40 containment areas after no new cases were reported in these areas in the last 28 days. Once the civic body declares an area as containment area, residents from there are not permitted the go outside nor are others allowed to enter.
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