The East Singhbhum district administration held a flag march in the major roads of the steel city to enforce the lockdown seriously in and around Jamshedpur in view of the Covid-19 threat.

The flag march led by East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Ravi Shankar Shukla and East Singhbhum senior superintendent of police Anoop Birtharay began in the morning from the district collectorate along with a battery of police and riot control vehicles. It visited all important arteries in Sakchi, Bistupur, Mango, Sidhgora, Baridih, Agrico, Kadma, Telco, Burmamines, Jugsalai and Sonari.

“The flag march was aimed not only to enforce the lockdown under Section 144 of the CrPC and Jharkhand State Epidemic Diseases (Covid-19) Regulations 2020 but also to assess if essential commodities were being sold in the market,” said DC Shukla.

The district administration has formed 19 surveillance teams for Jamshedpur, as well as Mango, Jugsalai civic areas and 11 blocks of district.

“Each surveillance team has members of the health department, a magistrate and local police station officials. Teams will visit houses of each of the over 3,000 migrant labourers and residents who have come from various parts of India and abroad to see if they are maintaining home quarantine and crosscheck claims with their neighbours. If anybody is found with symptoms, he or she would be kept at the quarantine centres and their throat swabs taken for sample tests,” the DC added.

Traffic and city police personnel were vigilant at most commercial hubs, stopping two- and four-wheelers to ask people why they were out on the road.

SSP Birtharay said a rapid action team of 12 magistrates and 30 cops was stationed at the police control room in Sakchi to assist local police stations 24/7 to enforce the lockdown.