A clothes store located on Dr Besant Road in Chennai’s Royapettah was sealed on Friday after a large crowd gathered at the spot as it was reopened. Authorities stepped in and dispersed the crowd before sealing the shop shut.
Visuals of the incident showed a large number of people, all in close proximity, with many of them either not wearing masks properly, or wearing no mask, trying to jostle and enter the shop as policemen attempted to ask them to leave. The incident took place on Friday morning.
According to reports, the shop was opened recently and they had publicised offers like nine shirts for Rs 999, one t-shirt for Rs 9.
Speaking to TNM, Teynampet zonal officer of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), said, "We came to know that a crowd had gathered outside the shop and sealed the shop. We will take further necessary action after the owner submits his petition."
Watch the video below.
The police said that no complaint had been filed and a case was yet to be registered against the management of the store, but the store had been temporarily sealed.
Meanwhile, on September 4 alone, Chennai's civic body said that it had fined 600 people in the city for not wearing shops, besides collecting Rs 2.45 lakh in fines from stores that failed to ensure physical distancing.
Today (September 4) alone, @chennaicorp fined 600 people in the city for not wearing masks and collected Rs 2.45 lakh from shops that did not maintain physical distancing.
— Siddharth TOI (@SiddharthPTOI) September 4, 2020
40 shops sealed
This comes at a time when the Tamil Nadu government has eased a number of lockdown restrictions. The state has also reported some of the highest new cases of COVID-19 in the country. The state at present has a total tally of 4,45,851 out of which 52,070 are active cases. A total of 7,608 people have also succumbed to the virus in Tamil Nadu as of Thursday.
State capital Chennai continues to head the COVID-19 infection table with its total COVID-19 case tally at 1,38,724, out of which 12,059 are active as of September 3.
With IANS inputs