BHOPAL: The administration’s slogan, ‘Stay Home, Be safe and Protected from Covid’, worked during the lockdown on Sunday. The scorching heat, too, directly helped the administration in implementing the lockdown as the people, themselves, preferred to stay home throughout the day as a precautionary measure against the heatwave and for fear of sunstroke.
Roads wore a deserted look in all pockets of the state capital as they were totally barricaded, with heavy police contingents keeping a strict vigil. The state capital looked like a city under siege. Only restricted public movement was allowed; otherwise, the lockdown was total. The policemen deployed at the barricades kept a close vigil on the public’s movement. They intercepted people who were spotted moving about without any valid reason.
The main object behind Sunday’s lockdown is to curb the sharp spike in the number of corona cases by restricting public movement which happens more on weekends on Sundays. So, with night curfew till Sunday, it is, in effect, a total lockdown till Monday morning.
Besides, select petrol pumps were open in the daytime and were closed by 8.00 pm. Even at the petrol pumps that were open, not all petrol-vending machines were operated. However, temples and other religious places were not closed, but people were hardly present on the temple premises. Big medical stores were open. In the morning hours, milk booths were open up to 9.00 am. But business establishments were totally shut.
‘Weekend closure’
Many small medicine shops — especially those in the colonies — were closed during Sunday’s lockdown despite being one of the essential services and being exempted from the purview of the lockdown. People had to rush to hospitals that house medical stores to buy medicines. However, the administration has denied that they forced the smaller medicine shops to close. They had decided not to open shop just because it was the weekend, the administration said.
