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Softly-softly tack at first with new virus laws
Police are using more carrot than stick so far in education campaigns about the newly-gazetted quarantine laws to guard against the spread of COVID-19 although they promise to get tougher in a few days.
So far, the only action taken against transgressors was by a Panadura Magistrate who found this week that a police officer on duty at the court police post had shared a water bottle with a civil defence officer.
The male police officer and female civil defence officer have been charged with violating quarantine law and been sentenced to one month’s light imprisonment suspended for five years.
Police stations island-wide are carrying out education campaigns.
In the Gampaha area, 200 officers have been deployed on the job. “We have put roadblocks and barriers along the Kandy-Colombo road to instruct travellers to wear face masks all the time and not to get down in curfew-imposed areas,” Chief Inspector Saman Jayasinghe said.
“We allow students facing Advanced Level exams, their parents, and teachers who are exam invigilators to travel without any restrictions but we also continue to remind them of health guidelines,” he said.
In Galle, police headquarters Officer-in-Charge Chief Inspector Kapila Senadipathi de Silva has written to businesses to emphasise that they must follow the new rules.
Officers have been instructed to disperse crowds gathering along roadsides and public areas “to avoid our district facing a curfew”. Police vehicles with loudspeakers are touring the region to announce the new rules.
Police in the Northern and North-Central provinces are on similar duties. “We are only lenient for three more days, then we will start implementing the law,” Anuradhapura Police Officer-in-Charge Chief Inspector Sanjeewa Mahanama said.
Chief Inspector Prasad Fernando of Jaffna Police said officers are showing people how to use face masks and sanitisers and keep a safe distance from each other.
“A Rs. 10,000 fine can be imposed if a person violates the quarantine law,” he said. He said at first, police will simply carry out educational campaigns. In a few days, punitive measures would be taken against violators.