Ashis Sinha I Bokaro: Beware! Violation of home quarantine norms can land ones in jail besides sending them an additional 28 days institutional quarantine. The administration is keeping regular surveillance by way of physical verification and technical monitoring.
In a bid to better enforce social distancing amid the Coronavirus scare, any resident found violating lockdown rules would be booked.
“Every person who is required to observe home quarantine shall strictly observe the same, failing which they would be liable for penal action and shifted to government quarantine,” said Mukesh Kumar Deputy Commissioner Bokaro.
Violators of ‘home quarantine guidelines’ would be booked under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act. “Administration is keeping a close watch on them through regular surveillance by technical monitoring including mobile location, GPS or live location, video calls and by physical verifications,” added Kumar.
“We prefer the technical method of verification as physical visit and direct contact of police with the persons can be avoided,” he said.
We are at work, very soon ‘Arogyam Prahari’ (an app) will be launched to track such violators in the district, he said.
DC urged, “Be safe, stay at home and strictly follows the home quarantine guidelines.”
Though Bokaro became the zero COVID-19 districts but in the coming days, Covid-19 may be a big challenge for us as a large number of people (about 21,000) are returning back to their homes.
We have to ensure that we remain a zero COVID-19 district. The lockdown will continue until the government decides. Our borders will continue to remain sealed, said Kumar adding “Anyone entering the district under special circumstances will have to stay in a government quarantine center. Later they will have live in-home quarantine after they will be reported negative of Sars-Cov-2 virus infection.”
The district administration is working hard on virus risk mitigation plans and regarding the management of the people returning in the district. “Including social distancing, remote working and to ensure the business survival we are planning where to keep those people (who returned from far-flung states),” he added.
Over 21 thousand migrant workers are estimated to be returned in the district. Besides their accommodations, we are also chalking out plans to provide them employment. Presently, 5133 schemes (including PM Aawas Yojna) are being implemented in various blocks and panchayats across the district and about 16000 labourers are working, he said.
Aiming to create enormous employment opportunities about 1,033 new schemes have been sanctioned while 1200 more schemes are in pipe-line for approval, said Kumar.
Notably, a nationwide lockdown was imposed on 23 March aiming to check the spread of the novel coronavirus infection. In the current scenario of lockdown, the implementation of MNREGA schemes has been started in a large number of districts in view of the difficulties of workers.
