Bhubaneswar: The Odisha capital has been divided into three zones for effective enforcement of COVID-19 management guidelines.
One DCP will be in charge of each zone.
This was decided at the review meeting presided over by DGP Abhay in presence of senior officers of the Twin City Commissionerate Police on Thursday.
With the deployment of 50 more officers and five platoons of armed forces, enforcement will also be intensified in market areas and specific hotspots.
This comes a day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed displeasure over poor enforcement of COVID norms in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, which have been reporting the bulk of new cases.
The health department had earlier attributed the current spike in cases to poor compliance of COVID norms. People in the twin cities have often been found without masks and not maintaining social distancing. Bhubaneswar has added around 3000 cases, Cuttack another 1500 new cases in the last one week.
Since Saturday, Bhubaneswar police have penalised 3872 people for such violations.
Also Read: 1023 Bhubaneswar Denizens Fined For Not Wearing Masks In Last 24 Hours
According to official sources, Twin City Police has also decided to collect more PPE kits and face shields from State Central Store and encourage their personnel to use them.
“Good care will be taken of police personnel, who are infected by COVID-19,” it added.
