AGENCIES, New Delhi/Kolkata: While most of India’s population chose to stay indoors in self-imposed curfew as per advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, it seems there was another group of people who decided to take it lightly and carry on doing their business as usual. This aspect has irked the Centre which is monitoring the coronavirus situation minutely 24/7.
On Monday morning, Modi said the government has imposed rigid restrictions across the country to prevent further spread of coronavirus (individual or community) that has infected over 400 people in India and killed seven. He also urged states to ensure that the directives are followed by people and ordered states to “strictly enforce lockdown”. Modi asked for legal action against those who violated the restrictions in place.
“Many people are still not taking the lockdown seriously. Please save yourself, save your family, follow the directives seriously. I request the state governments to ensure that the rules and laws are followed,” the Prime Minister tweeted in Hindi.
Across India, 80 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru are on complete lockdown mode.
In Kolkata, the Mamata Bannerjee ruled TMC has extended the lockdown from Monday evening 5.00pm till Mar 27, which means only essential services will be allowed. Railways, metros and inter-state buses have been stopped and public transport has been banned in several states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Bengal and Haryana.
Since local trains are off the grid, vendors of consumable and perishable items like vegetables, fish etc are finding reaching good to markets now an expensive proposition as they have only road transport as option. Although, trucks carrying essential goods will be allowed movement in the affected cities there have been complaints that tough checks at borders had slowed down supply.
Besides the lockdown, the Centre has expanded testing arrangements to include private laboratories and it will now include asymptomatic people who have had contact with confirmed cases.
