india

Updated: Mar 25, 2020 00:22 IST

A furious Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday threatened to impose round-the-clock curfew, bring in the army and issue shoot-at-sight orders, if the people continue to violate the lockdown orders.

The chief minister held a high-level review meeting in the evening following reports of six more positive cases for Sars-Cov-2 virus, taking the overall positive cases in the state to 39.

There was widespread violation of lockdown restrictions in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Monday.

The meeting took place shortly before Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an address to the nation announced a countrywide lockdown for three weeks from Tuesday midnight. The Centre also invoked the Disaster management Act to enforce the lockdown

According to the latest official bulletin released by the Telangana medical and health department, a 49-year old man, resident of Kokapet in Rangareddy with travel history from London reported positive for coronavirus. The second patient is a 39-yr old woman from Chandanagar in Ranga Reddy district with travel history from Germany.

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And the third patient is a 61-yr old housewife from Begumpet in Hyderabad with travel history from Saudi Arabia. “All of them are undergoing treatment in the hospital and their condition is stable,” the bulletin said.

Speaking to the media after the review meeting, KCR, as Rao is better known, regretted that many people were not taking the lockdown seriously. “See what has happened in the US? When the people did not take the lockdown seriously, the US government had to hand over the entire country to the Army. I request the people of Telangana not to give scope for such a situation. Please don’t force the government to impose 24-hour curfew and issue shoot-at-sight orders,” he said.

He announced that there would be a virtual curfew in the entire state from 7 pm to 6 am every night. “If people have any emergency situation, they can dial 100 and the government would extend all help,” he said.

The chief minister also warned the traders against raising prices of essential commodities by taking advantage of the lockdown. “We shall cancel their licences and invoke preventive detention act to prosecute them,” he said.

He also called upon all the elected representatives to enforce the lockdown.

In Andhra Pradesh, there was one fresh case of Sars-Cov-2 virus on Tuesday – that of a 25-year old man who came from London to Srikalahasti in Chittoor district via Chennai on March 19. He was admitted to Ruia Hospital in Tirupati, where he tested positive.

An official bulletin by AP government said so far, 76 samples had been tested in the state of which 61 were negative and results of 14 other samples were pending.

“In all, 14907 people returned from abroad since March 1 and of them, 13290 are in home isolation and 84 are still in hospital quarantine,” the bulletin said.