Puri: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently appealed to the inmates in quarantine centres across the state to abide by the norms. DGP Abhay too warned that quarantine norm violators would be strongly dealt with as per law.
Yet some of the qurantinees in some centres in Puri town are allegedly roaming outside their centres freely, creating a panic for the local people.
Puri had reported two coronavirus infected patients last Sunday, 37 days after the first case was detected in the district. Test report of another person came out to be positive for the infection Tuesday. The town residents are already in fear owing to this.
The case in point is the centre set up in Mochi Sahi Kalyan Mandap. In this centre, which can accommodate 100 people, 36 are currently staying. Recently some of them were spotted moving around in nearby markets.
“For some of the disobedient inmates quarantined in Mochi Sahi Kalyan Mandap centre, we are living in fear. They are frequently coming out of the centre and roaming in Mochi Sahi market. The administration should keep a vigil on them,” said Jyoti Prakash Mishra, a local resident, who is an advocate by profession.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson, Binayak Dasmohapatra also agreed with Mishra. He said, “These centres are always posing a threat to local residents since there are some disobedient inmates. These inmates should have been set up in outside of the city,” he maintained.
When contacted, centre’s nodal officer, Pramod Kumar Bhoi refuted the allegations terming them as baseless. He said, “There is a boundary wall of enough height to be scaled over behind the centre and the front gate is always kept locked. Besides this, security guards are also on round-the-clock duty. So there is nil possibility of inmates’ going out of the centre,” he added.
PNN
