Two shops sealed in Rourkela for flouting COVID-19 lockdown norms

Rourkela: An enforcement squad of Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) today sealed two shops for flouting COVID-19 lockdown norms at Udit Nagar area in Rourkela.

Acting on a tip-off, five teams of RMC officials along with Rourkela police conducted raid at a wholesale market at Plant Site and Kacheri Road localities in Udit Nagar at around 10.00 am and found two shops were selling non-essential items despite lockdown order issued by the government.

Taking strict action against the violators, the RMC slapped a fine amount of Rs 50,000 on the shop owners and set items seized during raids on fire.

During the raid, the enforcement team seized a huge cache of cigarettes, tobaccos and soft drinks worth around Rs 1.50 lakh.

According to source, owners of shops — Dayal Entreprises located at Kacheri Road and Govind Entreprises at Bisra Dahar Road — had kept their shops opened to sell tobaccos and non-essential articles on pretext of selling essential items permitted by the authorities during lockdown. Following seizure of articles, the RMC sleuths collected Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively as fine from the shop owners.

Besides Kacheri Road and Plant Site, the raids were conducted simultaneously at Daily Market, Traffic Gate and Madhusudan Marg to take action against the violators.

On the other hand, the officials also sealed a jewelry shop on charges of selling cold drinks inside the shop.

The raid on shops violating the lockdown guidelines will continue in upcoming days, an official in RMC said.

Worth mentioning, Centre has clamped 21-day lockdown restricting operation of commercial establishments except shops selling vegetable and grocery items to fight against COVID-19 in the country.