On a day when Goa recorded its highest daily tally of Covid-19 cases in months, with 527 cases reported on Wednesday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant set a target for police station in-charges, directing them to book 500 SOP violators per day.
Ruling out any other restrictions, Sawant said that the state could not afford another lockdown, which he said had reduced the revenue collection to virtually zero, when the lockdown was imposed last year.
"I have told the police and the Collector's office that if a person is seen violating (SOPs) in public places repeatedly, the person can be fined more than once," Sawant said. "Police stations should book 500 cases a day," the Chief Minister also said, while urging people to mandatorily maintain social distancing, wear masks and maintain the government SOPs.
A new lockdown, Sawant said, would not help arrest the spread of Covid.
"Lockdown is not a solution. We do not want to disturb people. After the last lockdown, we had to start labour camps and the economy had dropped to zero. Revenue collection had dropped. Lockdown will not lead to reduction in coronavirus. The solution is vaccination, social distancing, wearing of masks and exercising precautions," Sawant said.
Published 07 April 2021, 18:40 IST