Rise in fake posts spreading COVID-based canards: CM

Fake social media posts targeting individuals in the name of having contracted COVID-19 is on the rise, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday.

In Alappuzha, a set of miscreants attempted to ostracise a youth who had arrived from Mumbai by spreading the false news that he was a transmitter of the virus. The victim received threatening calls and feared whether his neighbours would brand him an outcast. The police arrested the perpetrators, the CM said on Wednesday. He said the police had raised a voluntary force of non-disabled citizens with a clean legal record who would help the police patrol neighbourhoods. Law enforcement had issued them badges. The police would use digital tools, including drone surveillance and videoconferencing, as force multipliers to reduce its workload and optimise officer deployment.

Mr Vijayan said COVID-19 had changed governance. The Thamarassery taluk in Kozhikode district had held a grievance redressal adalat online. The government had asked other taluks to attempt the same.

Lockdown violations

The police reported 3,261 instances of citizens not wearing masks on Wednesday. As many as 38 persons jumped quarantine. So far, law enforcers have booked 458 persons for quarantine violation.