Sarpanch, others booked for violating lockdown rules in Khammam

Thousands of public gathered in violation of lockdown rules at a religious ceremony, wherein consecration of deity of a newly constructed temple took place at Konijerla mandal headquarters in the district

Khammam: Even as the State government is making concerted efforts to contain the spread of Coronavirus by imposing the lockdown across the State, people in some places seem to be undermining the seriousness of the issue.

For instance, thousands of public gathered in violation of lockdown rules at a religious ceremony, wherein consecration of deity of a newly constructed temple took place at Konijerla mandal headquarters in the district on Monday.

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The public attending the event failed to maintain physical distance much to the concern of all. It was alleged that temple committee members had not obtained permission for such a huge gathering and they also failed to ensure social distancing during the ceremony which was being conducted for the past four days and concluded on Monday.

Surprisingly several elected members and political leaders also took part in the ceremony though they were fully aware of the dangers of such a massive gathering of crowds. Meanwhile, upon receiving complaints from the locals, police reached the spot and dispersed the crowd.

Wyra ACP, Satyanarayana and Inspector of Police, Vasanth Kumar said Konijerla sarpanch S Rama Rao and others including the temple committee members were booked under the provisions of Disaster Management Act for violating lockdown rules.

The operators of the sound system and members of the orchestra band were detained and were also booked by the police. The ACP warned that strict action would be taken if anyone was found organising meetings and celebrations in violation of lockdown rules.

Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police, Vishnu S Warrier informed that Rama Rao and 18 others were booked under IPC Sections 188, 269, 270, read with Section 149 and Section 3 of Epidemic Diseases Act and under Section 51(B) of Disaster Management Act.

A charge memo was issued as part of departmental disciplinary action against Wyra CI, Vasanth Kumar and SI Srinivas along with the Special Branch ASI for failing to control the influx of large numbers of people and for failing to gather advance information about the public gathering.

Similarly, the CP asked Wyra ACP to give an explanation about the incident.

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