Dhanbad police and district administration carried out a special traffic cum social distancing monitoring drive on Saturday. Rule violators under the Disaster Management Act and the Motor Vehicle Act were made aware about the significance of following protocol to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Conducted at Randhir Verma Chowk of Dhanbad under the leadership of Dhanbad city SP R Ramkumar and rural SP Amit Renu, the drive began at 11 am and continued for around three hours. Over 100 unmasked vehicle drivers, and others violating the new motor vehicle act were caught for various offences like triple riding on bikes, overcrowding cars etc. All violators were later let off with a warning.

DSP (Law and Order) Dhanbad, Mukesh Kumar said, “We have launched the drive today as per the instruction of Senior SSP of Dhanbad, Akhilesh B Verior under provisions of the new Motor Vehicle Act and simultaneously checked whether the rules in view of Covid crisis are being followed - social distancing in vehicles and mask wearing, use of sanitizers, prescribed number of passengers in a vehicle.”

“As it was the first day, we didn’t impose any fine and rather warned people to mend their ways and also provided masks to some maskless drivers,” Kumar said. He also informed that the drive will continue in the future, where punishment or applicable fines will be meted out..

SP Amit Renu said that the Covid-19 infection spread can be prevented only when people follow social distancing norms in the strictest sense, and use masks as a habit.

“We have also instructed the officers-in-charge at various police stations of the district to closely monitor the situation in market places to ensure observance of social distancing norms and at same time strictly enforce the wearing of masks” Renu further noted.