Karnataka government's recent measure to ensure the citizens are 'locked in' their homes has but turned to be a figure of fun for the Twitterati. The Karnataka Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar on Monday, 30 March, had said all the people who are home quarantined in the state have to click their selfies and send them to the government a mobile application every one hour.
The selfie or photo will have GPS coordinates so the location of the sender would be known, said the BJP leader in a release. He had also added that failing of sending these pictures every hour (except between 10 pm to 7 am) would result in them shifted to government-created mass quarantine facilities. Such action would be taken even if the wrong photos are also sent.
'Ridiculous' and absurd, says Twitter
This move has now attracted mixed reactions with some flaying it, while others have backed the efforts to maintain the lockdown.
To make the idea work out well among the public, an application named 'Quarantine Watch' has been developed by the State Revenue Department. In his press release, Dr K Sudhakar had directed all home quarantined persons to enroll themselves and send their selfies on an hourly basis.
Countering the state's action, many on social media have referred to the move as "manual surveillance".
People have been posting different comments mocking the government's decision. One user even asks "What if someone click 24 selfies in one go?"
While the other user says that TikTok videos should be uploaded and sent.
On the other hand, five new positive cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Karnataka on Monday, taking the total number of the affected in the state to 88, the Health department said in Bengaluru.
