Chhattisgarh: Chhattisgarh Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu on Saturday said that 72 thousand policemen have been deployed in the state for strengthening security during the ongoing lockdown in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the guidance of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Section-144 is being strictly implemented in the state and police team is making sure that every citizen is following guidelines of lockdown. To make lockdown more effective and convenient for people, the state home ministry is in constant touch with officers via video conferencing and giving all necessary instructions from time to time.

Today, while briefing to media through video conferencing from the Chips office, Home and Public Works Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu stated that to control the pandemic situation, the states who share their borders with Chhattisgarh like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh borders is already sealed and no one is allowed to travel from one state to another without the permission of the government.

Apart from that all-district border is also closed in order to stop people from travelling one district to another. And one corona cell has been set up at the police headquarters, where all districts law and orders activities are monitoring 24×7  by officials. Further, he added that to control law and order during the lockdown, 1316 FIRs, 1110 arrests, 2020 vehicle has been seized so far. A total of 97 lakh 94 thousand 595 rupees has been recovered from accused’s under Motor Vehicle Act.

Minister Sahu also informed that many precautionary measures are being taken in the state jails along with physical distancing to protect the prisoners from this infection. Apart from that total 2368 detainees(prisoners)  have been released from 5 Central Jails, 20 District Jails and 8 Sub Jails under interim bail, regular bail, parole and after completion of punishment tenure. He also informed that in the last five days, construction work of 40 roads, 42 buildings and 22 bridges has been started by the Public Works Department.

In the context of tourism, Home minister said that to avoid the spread of coronavirus government is building strategy to promote local tourism and provide employment opportunities to the local people. Under this, Murrumsilly Dam Dhamtari, Hasdeo Bago Dam Satranga Korba, Sanjay Gandhi Reservoir (Khutaghat) Ratanpur, Gangrel Dhamtari, Sarodha Dam Kabirdham, Samodha Barrage Raipur, Kodar Dam Raipur, Malania (Gorella Ka) and Dudhawa for water tourism and adventure tourism has been selected so far. We are also planning to develop sirapur as a hub of Chhattisgarh tourism.

After identifying immense possibilities of tourism in the state, the ‘Tourism Policy -2020’ has been prepared by the state government. He informed that for effective control of religious trusts, in the departmental budget for the year 2020-21, the post for the office has been approved along with the budget provision of 2.02 crore for the formation of directorate at the state level and subordinate offices at the division level. A grant of Rs 2.39 crore has been also made for renovation, repair, maintenance of temples and construction of Dharamshala at religious places.