Week long complete lockdown along Indo-Bangla border areas in Tripura will come into force from Friday (July 17). Chief Secretary of Tripura Manoj Kumar already issued fresh guidelines and revised restrictions for the lockdown slated to be clamped from Friday.
District Magistrate West Tripura District Sandip Mahatme said, “A joint meeting between the police and civil administration was organized earlier. The issues related to deployment of police and TSR jawans had been thoroughly discussed. From our part we had shared the list of areas which were to be locked down and demanded additional deployment of police, TSR and other forces in these region. Despite some manpower limitations, as some areas were still earmarked as containment zones, the police assured us of extending full support”.
Mahatme also added, as soon as the order was issued by the state government, process of identifying the urban and rural wards that fall under the directed locations was initiated. After demarcation of the areas, the civil administration had begun announcement drives so that people could be made aware of the situation, he said.
Mahatme also said, “We have started public outreach programmes in the selected areas to acclimatize people of the situation. In the process, certain exemptions have been granted which are being also disseminated among the people. Apart from that all the emergency services would stand exempted from the lockdown along with business establishments that deal in essential commodities”.
According to the order copy, all business organizations, commercial activities, movement of individuals, offices, public transport, and other such activities had been banned for the stipulated period. Justifying the imposition of restrictions, the order reads, “It has come to the notice of the state government that there is some spread of Covid 19 in the border areas of the state which has posed as a major threat to Public health, hygiene and safety of the people. It is also felt that unless stringent measures are put in place to contain the spread of the pandemic, there is chance of large scale spread of Covid 19 in the population which is likely to cause loss of human lives”.
