Covid-19 lockdown: ‘City sees nine incidents of gathering of crowd daily’

These control rooms have been designated to monitor such activities via CCTV cameras across the city.

Despite the ongoing lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19, at least nine incidents of crowd gathering are being reported daily at control rooms, according to data released by the Mumbai Police.

Both, the Mumbai Police and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been monitoring the city streets from their respective control rooms. (PTI file photo)

These control rooms have been designated to monitor such activities via CCTV cameras across the city.

According to the control room data, between March 22 and April 3, more than 10 incidents were reported daily. On March 22, the day the Janata Curfew was announced, 27 incidents of crowd gathering were reported, followed by 29 incidents on March 23, and 30 incidents on March 24, when a three-week lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Deputy commissioner of police, Pranay Ashok, who is also the spokesperson of Mumbai Police, said, “Every time our control room gets a report of crowd gathering via the CCTV network, the local police station is informed. We have been appealing to citizens to practice social distancing and have also been regularly filing cases against those ignoring the lockdown.”

The BMC is also taking real-time feed of over 241 containment zones using video analytics from the disaster management control room.

Crowding incidents reduced from March 25, when nine incidents were reported, however, the number started to increase since March 30 when 23 incidents were reported. On March 31, 15 incidents were reported; 15 on April 1, and 19 incidents on April 2. On April 3, the most incidents of crowd gathering in the last two weeks – 28 – were reported.