‘Enemy of society’: MP police’s pamphlet fight against coronavirus lockdown violators

In Mandsaur, people started trickling out of their homes during the Janta Curfew, a self-imposed quarantine call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday even though the city is under lockdown until March 25.

Police in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur have come up with an idea to deal with people violating the orders for a lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus in the city.

India on March 22, 2020, observed a Janta Curfew to help prevent the spread of Covid -19. (PTI / Representational Photo)

Six people in the state have tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 infection so far—one from Bhopal and five from Jabalpur. The state government has declared lockdown in more than 35 districts, including Mandsaur, which varied from a period of 72 hours to April 3.

In Mandsaur, people started trickling out of their homes during the Janta Curfew, a self-imposed quarantine call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday even though the city is under lockdown until March 25.

So, Mandsaur Police printed some pamphlets, made people carry them and clicked their photograph. “I am an enemy of society. I won’t stay home,” the pamphlet in Hindi read.

“This is part of a social experiment to make people stay home,” Hitesh Chaudhary, Mandsaur’s superintendent of police, said.

Madhya Pradesh reported its first few cases of coronavirus from Jabalpur last Friday. They include three members of one family, who had returned from Dubai recently. The fourth person who tested positive for the coronavirus had a travel history to Germany.

The number of Covid-19 patients in India has risen to 415, the Indian Council of Medical Research said on Monday. There have been seven coronavirus disease-related deaths in the country so far.