Madhya Pradesh: Rural markets to remain closed along with those in urban areas

BHOPAL: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said the markets in cities will remain closed along with those in villages. He has directed the collectors to hold discussions with the people in the rural areas, but the markets should be closed.

The chief minister asked them to break the chain of the virus. Many corona cases had been reported from rural areas, Chouhan said, adding that attention should be paid to rural, as well as to city, areas. He said that markets in the rural areas should be closed. The people in the rural areas should be taken into confidence by holding discussions with them, but the markets must be shut. The markets cannot be opened unless the virulence of the disease lessens, he said.

Chouhan said that most of the districts in the state had been placed under corona curfew, but small markets in the rural areas were still open. The officers were paying more attention to the cities than to the rural areas, which should not be ignored, he added.

The chief minister said that many patients were brought from the rural to the urban areas and many had died from corona. According to Chouhan, deaths are occurring because of a lack of health facilities in the rural areas.

As the last rites of villagers are performed in their native places, the correct figures of death are not known, he said. It was not known whether those people had died from corona or of any other disease, because of a lack of testing facilities in the rural areas, he said. There was a shortage of vaccines in the rural areas, he said, adding that this was the reason why the virus was spreading its tentacles there and the condition of the people was worsening.