Hyderabad: Citizens irked by police penalties during lockdown relaxation

Hyderabad: It's a known fact that Telangana has announced a partial lockdown by only letting shops and establishments to run their operations from 6 to 10 am. But the most concerning point to many citizens is the police penalising them in those four hours by clicking pictures of vehicles parked on roadsides and imposing fines on people for not maintaining social distancing norms.

Suresh Kumar, a techie, said, "In the less time allotted by the government during the lockdown, there is huge rush at almost every shop. We have to wait for hours to make purchases. In the meanwhile, we are either penalised for not adhering to social distancing or for wrong parking by the police, as they are always on a spree and clicking pictures randomly."

He noted: "In these difficult times, wherein every person is worried for his life and working day in and day out to make ends meet, while also staying afloat to survive despite there being no sufficient income nor savings. In such a scenario, it is ridiculous on the part of the government to even allow the police to penalise the common citizens, who are just trying to feed their families."

Mahesh Agarwal, a trader, stated: "We are into hardware business. Our entire business is in loss since one year. The recently announced lockdown has broken the backbone of our industry. On top of it, we are allowed to open shops for only four hours. During the relaxation, if by chance we get two or three customers, standing for purchase, the cops are clicking our shop photos and booking petty cases against us."

"Despite incurring loss, we keep our heads high by taking out our savings for survival. It is really painful to pay challans from our hard earned money. There should be some streamlining by the government as to when and how can the police issue challans. First the government imposes a partial lockdown and allows us to operate only for four hours.

Within those hours the police are running in every street and clicking pictures to penalise us. Is that justice," lamented Agarwal.

Rajesh Gulati, a mobile shop-owner, stated: "We all know that the police station in-charges are given targets to collect some specified amount in the form of challans. It's totally agreeable. But in such a situation, wherein we are allowed to operate for only four hours, can't the polices be just lenient and let us earn something for our livelihood."