Violators shifted to COVID isolation centres

Public cry foul at police move, say lockdown violators may get infected

Lockdown violators in at least four districts -- Peddapalli, Mancherial, Kumaram Bheem-Asifabad and Rajanna-Sircilla -- are whisked away by the police for confinement at isolation centres for a few hours on the pretext of counselling for not heeding to the norm to stay indoors. After identifying the violators, the police were seen taking them in trucks to COVID isolation centres in the districts. This act of police has earned public wrath as violators complain that the law enforcement personnel at best can impose fines and seize the vehicles, but taking them to an isolation centre where COVID-19 positive patients are being treated is beyond the mandate given to them. The police are telling the violators that they will be kept at the isolation centre for week. “As I was going on the road, the policemen disembarked from the vehicle, came up to me, frisked and pushed me into a truck where another half-a-dozen people were huddled together,” said a youngster from Godavarikhani town.