Police, admin struggle to keep people at home

Police and administrative bodies are trying to keep people at home by fining hundreds of people for ignoring instructions against unnecessary movements on roads and in markets in the capital.

Several police officers complained that more people were going out of their houses or living places though the number of infections with coronavirus kept on rising during the public holiday announced by the government to ensure physical distancing among people with a view to halting the spread of coronavirus. 

Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation officials on Friday said that they were focusing on kitchen market managements to reduce overcrowding, especially during the Ramadan.

There are 28 approved kitchen markets in the capital and most of those were relocated, said city corporation officials.

Moreover, police have been enforcing different initiatives amid Ramadan kitchen market managements across the country, said police headquarters assistant inspector general Sohel Rana.

A mobile court of Dhaka district administration on Thursday fined eight people for allegedly roaming around at Hatirpool and Ramna areas, said executive magistrate Mahnaz Hossain Fariba.

She added that she fined at least 50 people in last few days for walking around.

Such drives will continue, she added.

DMP mobile court officials said that on Thursday Tk 75,000 fines were collected from 57 people for wandering around. 

Dhaka senior assistant commissioner Abdul Awal said that the district administration fined over 1,200 people for flouting the rules in last one month.

Restrictions on vehicular movements in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country were imposed on March 26 and police and army were deployed to maintain the restrictions.

DMP officers, however, said that vehicular movements in city had increased in past few days as the number of police checkpoints had reduced at Bijoy Sarani, Badda, Hatirjheel, Mirpur, Shyamali, Dhanmondi, Kakrail, Shantinagar, Paltan and some other parts of the city.

Major Sajid Rahman, who is on duty at Uttara and Abdullahpur areas for nearly a month, said that some motorcyclists were found roaming around the city without specific reasons.

Now the law enforcement agency members are trying to stop such motorcyclists, he added.  

‘People wait in long queues in front of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh outlets without maintaining physical distance. We are requesting the people to follow safety and hygiene instructions,’ he added. 

Mohammadpur has been identified as one of the major COVID-19 hit areas in Dhaka as 44 residents of the area were infected with the virus until Wednesday night according to the data of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research. 

Some people, even though, were found moving around the area on Friday.

Dhaka North City Corporation’s Ward number 29 ( Tajmahal Road, Aziz Mahalla, Tikka Para, Bijli Mahalla, Zahuri Mahalla and parts of PC Culture Housing Society) councillor Nurul Islam Ratan said that they relocated around 300 shops of kitchen markets to nearby open space, but people were thronging the old locations.

DNCC chief revenue officer Abdul Hamid Mia said that there were 15 approved kitchen markets under the corporation and that were relocated on roads and open spaces.

There are 13 major kitchen markets, which have already been relocated, under the Dhaka South City Corporation, said officers.

DMP’s Lalbagh division deputy commissioner Muntasirul Islam said that many people at the area were breaching restriction instructions and they could not be controlled even after taking punitive measures. 

He said that they would tighten measures to keep people home and would not allow street vendors during Ramadan.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net