Days after introducing a colour-coded sticker system for those looking to travel amid the COVID-19 induced lockdown, the Mumbai Police has discontinued the plan. This comes soon after chaotic scenes from Mumbai's streets went viral and allegations of misuse were hurled. This does not however mean that people can now take to the roads en masse.
"Dear Mumbaikars. The red, yellow, green emergency stickers categorisation is being discontinued. However, thorough checks shall continue and we hope you will stand by us in taking on COVID-19 and avoid all non-essential and non-emergency movement outside home," the police tweeted.
For the uninitiated, the police had introduced green, yellow and red emergency stickers that had to be attached to any vehicle traversing the roads amid curfew. The colours separated vehicles by their purpose and the profession of the occupants.
Many others were convinced that the dicontinuation was a direct result of people doing their best to flout the COVID-19 lockdown rules. And indeed there might be some merit to the theory. After all the Mumbai Police themselves had recently bemoaned the possible misuse of the stickers.
"Good decision as missuse of it was large...most of them have put yellow sticker just as licences to move out," remarked another Twitter user.
But while some heaved a sigh of relief, others appear to be rather confused about what comes next. "Does that mean people can’t go to buy groceries, work, doctors like dentist, health check up, blood test etc?" one user wanted to know. "Aaj hi laaya tha (emergency sticker) sir! Ab refund kon dega?" another lamented.
