Bhubaneswar: Acting tough against violation of Covid-19 guidelines in the Capital city, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Tuesday, issued closure notices to two hotels at Kharavel Nagar here who were found blatantly violating the norms.
The two hotels that were operating behind Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) office were found serving food to customers inside hotel dining space. The action came after a clear violation of Covid-19 guidelines, which allows hotels, restaurants and other eateries to operate only with ‘takeaway and home-delivery orders’, was found.
“The guidelines for restaurants and hotels specifically mentioned that no dining options will be made available. This was done to discourage public gatherings and enforce social distancing. However, both the hotels were found to be violating the guidelines and thus were fined Rs 5,000 along with closure notice for 7 days,” Zonal District Commissioner, Anshuman Rath.
Rath also added that satisfactory undertakings from hotel owners have been taken and would be presented to the BMC Commissioner who would further reconsider opening of the eateries. Moreover, people present in the hotels at the time of inspection were sanitised and sensitised about the spread of Covid-19 under such circumstances.
Meanwhile, a joint enforcement squad of the BMC and BDA, Tuesday, carried surprise checks at hospitals/clinics. The squads reportedly made checks for the enforcement of Covid-19 guidelines especially in hospitals that were earlier given notices of failing to comply with the regulations.
BMC’s move to step up enforcement of Covid-19 guidelines has come after the BMC Commissioner, Prem Chandra Chaudhary, earlier said that the surge in virus cases is result of gross violation of the norms.
“The surge in Covid-19 cases is due to gross violation of health safety and social distancing norms and people coming from hotspot districts,” Chaudhary had said.
“A total of 317 cases were reported between July 1 and 10. We found 61 of them were reported in various hospitals and 212 patients have travel history and come in contact with coronavirus patients detected earlier. Others are locals,” Chaudhary earlier said.
