Chandigarh to adopt ‘name and shame’ as VIPs continue to violate curfew

The undeterred morning and evening walks by hoards of VIPs residing in Chandigarh continue to be the biggest violation of the curfew imposed in the city. With all pleas and directives failing to keep city's who's who in their homes, the UT administration shall now adopt a name and shame policy.

Chandigarh has so far reported 21 cases of COVID-19 and the curfew has been extended till May 3^.

Manoj Parida IAS, adviser to the administration, Chandigarh has issued a warning that starting from April 16, names and designations of VIPs who violate the curfew and go for morning and evening walks will be made public.

It may be noted that the UT police had conducted a special drive on April 13 in 120 city parks and rounded up over 450 morning walkers. While around 200 were penalised for violating the curfew, sources claim that VIPs including bureaucrats, politicians and senior government officials from Punjab and Haryana were let off with 'polite requests' from the cops.

“This is a city of VIPs and majority of them go out for regular morning or evening walks. We got many people who turned out to be very senior bureaucrats of Punjab and Haryana and all that we could do was to politely request them to stay home,” revealed a senior police officer to THE WEEK.

The drive apparently failed to have much impact as people continued with their walks forcing the administration to take a stern stance. “From tomorrow we will publish name and designations of VIPs violating curfew orders and going for morning and evening walks. Be warned,” read a tweet by Parida. He went on to define VIP as a 'very idiotic person' in a subsequent tweet.