The police have already sealed the area and banned movement in and out of it. (Express photo/Arul Horizon) The police have already sealed the area and banned movement in and out of it. (Express photo/Arul Horizon)

A BJP MLA has demanded military deployment in a Muslim-dominated area of the city, claiming that people in the locality were “not cooperating with civic officials and police for the containment of the coronavirus outbreak”.

In a video message, East Nagpur BJP MLA Krushna Khopde has said, “A lot of coronavirus cases have surfaced in the Satranjipura locality, where a tenth of Markaz-connected people have come. Initially, when the civic authorities had come to do a survey in the area, the people didn’t cooperate. They misbehaved with them and forced them to leave the area. But now several coronavirus cases have been reported from the area. So, I have requested Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Tukaran Mundhe to hand over the area to military.”

“There is an atmosphere of panic in the area due to this. Handing the area over to the military will mitigate it,” Khopde, a three-time MLA from the East Nagpur constituency that covers the Satranjipura locality, said in the message.

As reported earlier, the police have already sealed the area and banned movement entry and exit== .

Nagpur’s first coronavirus death last week was of a 68-year old man from the area. Since then, several positive cases have surfaced in the area.

When contacted, Khopde told The Indian Express, “Merely sealing the area won’t help. This is a Muslim-dominated locality and people can be found loitering inside in groups. You go to Mominpura. You will find the same scene there. These people are not like you and me. We will co-operate. They won’t. It can’t be managed by local police. That’s why I have demanded military.”

Asked about Khopde’s charges about the people of Satranjipura locality not cooperating with the authorities, Mundhe said, “People have started cooperating but more cooperation is expected, particularly in giving information to NMC staff for containment and survey. Also, lockdown must be followed, which is not yet seriously taken as they might have not understood the gravity of it.”

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