Curfew meaningless in morning hours in Imphal areas
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, May 17 2021:
Though the government is putting up restrictions by imposing curfew in different parts of the state in a bid to curb the transmission of Covid-19, some sections of the public are ignoring the restrictions in their daily battle of survival.
Every early morning, loads of vegetables from rural parts of the state are brought to Imphal for sale and Imphal city becomes just another crowded day every morning with buyers thronging to get their hands on the commodities.
Covid relevant SOPs laid down by the government take a backseat in these crowded flash markets, thus opening the backdoor for the contagion to enter into the society.
The number of daily new cases is increasing manifold in the past few days causing a fear psychosis among the people.
The number of people, who do not care about the pandemic or the SOP, is also increasing day by day.
However, maximum of these people are the ones who have to give up or hide their fear in their search of livelihood.
During a field survey conducted by The People's Chronicle, such crowded flash markets could be seen in different parts of Imphal areas like Sagolband, Nagamapal, Naoremthong, and Pishumthong among others.
Vegetables from different districts reach these places as early as 2 am and the flash market last for about one hour.
Maximum of the buyers are small time vendors, who sell vegetable products in their localities.
A large chunk of the buyers are also the early morning joggers.
So far, the government has not been able to stop such flash market or take up steps to reduce overcrowding at such markets.
Meanwhile, one farmer, who brings vegetable products to Imphal, said that they are losing their products since vegetables can get rotten within a few days.
As such, they are compelled to sell their products in the wee hours.
Maximum of the buyers are communicated in advance.
Since there are excessive restrictions in movement during daytime, they prepare their consignment from the evening and bring them in the wee hours.
Though they are aware of the risk, they cannot do much to ensure social distancing among the buyers.
All they could do is to take care of their own safety, the farmer said.
The farmer further said that the government should come up with a special initiative to reduce wastage of farm products and encourage the farmers.
It is almost impossible for the farmers to go online mode to sell their products since only a handful of farmers are tech savvy and aware of the modern technology.
Besides, there are problems of delivery and they could not sell their products properly online, the farmer added.
An old woman vendor, who came to one such flash markets to buy vegetables for vending in her locality, said that they are coming to buy the vegetables in the wee hours just to keep feed their families.
They are aware of the pandemic but feeding their family outweighs the fear of Covid-19.They would not come out in the wee hours only if the government provides them enough assistance to keep their families alive, she said.
Meanwhile, police seized eight vehicles loaded with vegetable products around 12.30 am on Monday on the charge of violating curfew imposed for containing Covid-19 pandemic.
The vehicles were on their way to Sagolband Bijoy Govinda area for selling the farm produce.
They were taken to Imphal police station where they were made to pay a fine of Rs 2000 each.
They were also instructed to strictly follow the guidelines laid down by the government to curb transmission chain of the virus.
On the other hand, 203 individuals were detained for violating Covid-19 SOPs in different parts of the state and Rs 77,300 were collected from them as fme on Monday, according to a statement issued by Covid-19 nodal officer of police department IGP (Ops) E Priyokumar.