Bengaluru: To ensure citizens comply with Prime Minister Narendra Modi”s call to observe janata or people’s curfew on Sunday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. to avoid being affected by coronavirus, city police would detain and quarantine its violators, said Bengaluru Top Cop.
The same seems to have not gone down well with Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who is said to have told the top cop to refrain from making such misleading statements.
“If citizens move around the city without a specific purpose or on a non-essential service on Sunday, they will be detained and quarantined in the nearest police station till 9 p.m. and let off later,” an official told IANS, citing Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao”s warning to the people about the janata curfew.
Tthe Home Minister has told the reporters that the curfew should be adopted by the people voluntarily and that there should be no force.
Reiterating Modi”s call to the people across the country, especially children and senior citizens to stay at home, Rao said every citizen was bound to abide by the advice as it was in the interest of all and to prevent the contagious virus affecting them or spreading to others.
“Janata curfew offenders can be booked and detained under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 269, the Karnataka Police Act 30 (section L) and the Epidemic Act, as they are meant to prevent spread of communicable disease dangerous to life,” asserted the police official.
In a nationwide televised address on Thursday night, Modi urged the people across the country to stay at home on Sunday from early morning to late night and avoid moving out for commuting or travelling out of the city, social gathering or crowding in public places to be safe and healthy.
The tech city of over 10-million denizens is already under partial lockdown since March 14 to March 31 as a preventive measure to minimise the fallout of the fatal disease sweeping across the world over and claiming lives in thousands.
