The public discontentment in the silk city is growing unabated day by day against the Government for indiscriminate lockdown and shutdown causing serious inconveniences to the public.

Brahmapur is the commercial, educational and cultural hub of the entire southern Odisha to which thousands of people from nearby villages and neighboring districts come every day to meet their day- to- day needs including healthcare services.

Though Ganjam district did not have a single Corona case as of March, but currently it is witnessing a spiraling rise to which the local public attribute to the huge inflow of migrants, particularly from Gujarat and other States during last 3 months.

According to some intellectuals and social activists, the long and crucial 72 hours of journey of these migrant workers from Gujarat to Ganjam in “Srameeka Express” could have been used to conduct appropriate medical test inside the train, either by an expert medical team or by the Railway Protection Force(RPF), so that on their arrival at Ganjam, the returnees with symptoms could have easily been segregated. Some local public even went on saying that such huge inflow of returnees to Ganjam from Gujarat was reportedly a well planned conspiracy against the State made by a Union leader who acted as an intermediary between the Gujarat Government and the State Government.

Knowing well that such a huge inflow of returnees to the State would create chaos and the State Government cannot manage them, the leader deliberately facilitated the return of migrants from Gujrat to Odisha without proper screening, sources said.

It is a fact that, some people are not following the norms strictly when they are either at home quarantine or institutional quarantine or in market place which by and large can be noticed everywhere. It is to be accepted that the erratic conduct and indiscipline attitude of a very few returnees has given rise to further spread of the deadly decease.

However, these disturbing elements can effectively be handled by the para-military forces to be deployed in strategic places of the city like containment zones, quarantine centers, Covid hospitals and busiest market places like Big Bazar and City Hospital Road and so on, feel the local public.

Social distancing and wearing mask are the two most important preventive measures which the para-military or military forces can take care of, like Commandos deployed in Kerala to tackle super spread of pandemic and to control mischief mongers, feel the public.

Sources said, that many suspected patients in the quarantine use to flee to their homes in night hours and return back to the centers after sun rise in rural areas, there by contributing to manifold increases in number of cases.

The residents of Brahmapur have clearly witnessed that, the day the lockdown is lifted, the local markets witness unprecedented rush to buy goods which also attributes to such increase in corona cases. Once the public know that, shops, commercial establishments, banks and hospitals are opened for them as usual, there will be no crowd and one can find the number of customers minimal, he pointed out.

According to a social activist, all the development works of the district, like electrification, construction and renovation of roads in the city, repair of LI points in rural areas are brought to halt simply on the pretext of Corona virus. The Govt officers take Corona plea for everything-starting from collection of tax up to sanitation.

Many intellectuals and responsive citizens of the city are of the opinion that, instead of indiscriminate lockdown, shut down and curfew, meaningful action should be taken to effectively contain the virus spread to the community by an array of other means available.

On Wednesday, Ganjam and Khorda district and Ganjam-Nayagarah districts border was suddenly sealed as a result of which hundreds of vehicles-twere reportedly stranded in the NH and people with valid air ticket on the way to Bhubaneswar Airport were not allowed to move on, causing a great deal of inconvenience.

Similarly, sudden stopping the OPD of MKCG Medical College and preventing the entry of patients (except serious patients) raises a question mark in the minds of local citizens as jeopardizes our basic health care system.