mumbai in a uturn after fresh restrictions placed on peoples movements attracted criticism and resulted in the ncp and congress disagreeing with cm uddhav thackeray on the need for such harsh measures the mumbai police on saturday said their guideline of not travelling more than 2km from home was only an appeal to citizens not an order the guideline issued on june 28 through a soundbyte and the polices twitter handle had said all trips including visits to markets and salons and for exercising should be restricted within 2km from home travelling more than 2km was only permitted for essentials and going to the office it saidthe police have since impounded more than 34000 vehicles for lockdown violation but a written prohibitory order issued on june 30 is mum about the 2km guideline it instead says that the movement of people for nonessential activities will be permitted within neighbourhood areasnearby onlytimes viewthe day the 2kmrule was announced this paper called it arbitrary all this new rule will do is encourage harassment it said and indeed harassment is what it led to with tens of thousands of vehicles being impounded even when many of them had a legitimate reason to be out on the road it also led to huge traffic snarls thanks to police nakabandis were glad that the police have seen reason and diluted the ruleif you stay in borivli cant come to mahim except for work copsthe prohibitory order has been issued for a fortnight from july 1 to 15mumbai police spokesperson dcp sangramsinh nishandar said on saturday that the 2km guideline was an avahan appeal to the public the written order does not mention 2km neighbourhood is the correct term what we mean is people living in borivli or malad cannot be coming to mahim or colaba for any reason other than office or essentials said nishandarthe prohibitory order clearly says that long distance travel for nonessential items will not be permittedpost the clarification issued by police nakabandis will still continue but may not be as strict as earlier the term neighbourhood may prove to be vague to enforce motorists said they would continue to carry their address proof alongto enforce the 2km guideline among other rules police officers had last week fanned across the city putting up nakabandis on arterial roads the checks resulted in massive snarls there were complaints from a number of citizens about how their vehicles were impounded even when they were going to buy medicines headed for office or for buying groceries within a few hundred metres from home the guideline also came under criticism from the legal fraternity which said it created confusion finally ncp supremo sharad pawar discussed with chief minister uddhav thackeray the hardships caused to people by rules such as the 2km guidelinesenior police officials added that the objective of the 2km guideline was only to protect citizens from getting a covid19 infection the situation is getting worse by the day deaths and infections are mounting in the