The Raipur district administration on Saturday decided to close all the grocery shops and vegetable vends on Sunday and Monday in order to enforce the lockdown more effectively, officials here said.
The ban will not be for enforced on the supply of essential commodities like medicine and milk supply, they said.
Medical shops as well as milkmen will be exempt from the total lockdown for the convenience for the people, the officials said.
Visualizing a drastic increase in the numbers of lockdown violators, the city police too are going to be tough against people venturing out in private vehicles without any valid reasons.
It has been noticed that a section of the people chose to ignore polite requests as the roads in the capital city are swamped with vehicles, officials said.
The excuse of going out for purchase of grocery and vegetables is a common plea of the violators and the police are helpless to control the situation, city police officials said.
Following the failure of a soft approach to implement the lockdown, the capital city police on Saturday decided to crack down on the violators in order to get the desired effect of the lockdown, they said.
“The polite request to the people of return back home, was not working and so the administration has decided to change their strategies and to take stern action,” a senior police official, who did not want to be named, said.
With the new stricture, it is expected that the number of people defying the lockdown will come down drastically in days to come, the official said.
Police will seize of vehicles of lockdown violators and notices under the Motor Vehicle Act will be issued within 48 hours, the official added.
Notable, people employed in different sectors such as medical labs, petrol pumps, private healthcare sector staff, mobile tower technicians, have been exempted from the purview of the lockdown and they can use their identity cards while travelling, police said.