New Delhi: Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has stated that “shoot at sight orders may be issued” if people of his state “do not listen and stay indoors” during the 21-day national lockdown announced on March 25 night.
“If people do not listen and stay indoors, we will be forced to implement a 24-hour curfew. If people continue to be on the streets, then the army has to be called out and shoot at sight orders may be issued,” the chief minister said while appealing people to follow the lockdown rules.
While the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued an exhaustive list of essential services and goods exempted from the lockdown in order to discourage people from panic buying, reports from many states have highlighted that police have beaten up people found outdoors – even those walking out of their homes to procure these said essentials.
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Such stringent measures are said to have come in the way in several places of general public’s attempts to purchase groceries or medicines, triggering panic and huge inconveniences.
According to the last reports from Telangana, the state has 39 positive cases with four new instances detected on March 25. Rao had told media that 19,000 people, including foreign nationals and Indian citizens who returned from abroad and those who came in contact with them, have been put under medical observation.
Reports said the government allowed all vehicles stopped at its borders for two days to enter the state on March 25 night as “a one-time gesture”.
The state government reportedly is in talks with home delivery services for groceries such as Big Basket and Grofers to restart their operations in the state. However, such services typically operate in the city areas.