Crowded vegetable markets, long queues of devotees and traffic jams on roads were the scenes witnessed in the Capital on Thursday, after the State Government provided some relaxations to denizens as part of unlock 2 on Wednesday.
The State Government on Wednesday allowed some relaxation, allowing essential services to operate. The opening time of shops has been extended by two hours in all districts, except Jamshedpur. All Government and private offices shall be now open till 4 pm with one third attendances.
There will be a complete lockdown in the State from Saturday 5 pm to Monday 6 am barring emergency services.
With Vat Savitri being celebrated on Thursday, vegetable and fruits markets were crowded as people throng for purchasing vegetables and fruits. Provisions stores were having more people as compared to normal days.
However, to dismay most of the people visiting markets and temples were not following necessary Covid-19 guidelines.
The women visiting Banyan trees for performing puja were not wearing masks nor were they following social distancing norms. Many temples were crowded with devotees. One such temple was Govardhan temple at Kanke road. As the temple has a Banyan tree, women from nearby areas such as Kanke Road, Upper Bazar, Ratu Road visit the temple for performing puja. Devotees have been at the temple since early morning.
Komal Sinha, a resident of Upper Bazar who was spotted at Govardhan temple said, “The temple is crowded as people are not following social distancing norms. The district administration as precautionary measures should have deployed security personnel ensuring people follow social distancing norms.”
Such a crowd was also seen at vegetable markets. At Naga Baba Khatal vegetable market, the security personnel were not very serious in enforcing social distancing norms. Dinkar Sahu, a resident of Mahavir Chowk area said, “Few days back when there was a surge in corona cases, the cops on duty at market were very much serious in ensuring social distancing norms. But, today what I see is cops are easy going in maintaining social distancing norms.” Sahu said that the leniency provided by district administration may be due to decline in corona cases and daily casualties rate.
The Mahavir Chowk resident’s observation assumed importance a few weeks back when corona was on its peak and Ranchi being the epicenter, the daily casualties from infection was around 60 -70 deaths, but now the pandemic is at least controlled in Jharkhand and particularly in Ranchi.
Ranchi district on Wednesday reported zero death after a gap of nearly 66 days. Ranchi reported zero death after April 3. On Wednesday 302 fresh cases were detected in the State while at the same time 615 persons recovered from infection. On Wednesday across state three persons died due to infection. In Ranchi 34 fresh cases were found while in East Singhbhum 61 cases were reported.
