VISAKHAPATNAM: In blatant violation of social distancing norms, people across the city were seen gathering in large numbers at markets, especially meat and fish, on Sunday. Some parts of the city even witnessed traffic congestions in the morning.
When TOI visited departmental stores, rythu bazaars, meat shops and fish markets and saw large crowds gathered to buy their regular stock.
Areas such as MVP Colony, Ramnagar,
Pandurangapuram
,
Dandubazaar
, PM Palem, and Seethammadhara were crowded with people, most of them not wearing a masks. During the first few days of lockdown, people were being provided with hand sanitisers upon entering markets, but no such arrangements were seen on Sunday.
“The
rythu bazaar
at MVP Colony was crowded and there were hardly any police to control the crowd. The circles drawn for social distancing have also disappeared,” said Srinivas, a local resident.
“It was disheartening to see people crowding. I haven’t stepped out of my house for the past 10 days. I was surprised to see people not realising that maintaining social distancing is the need of the hour,” said Ratna Latha, another resident.
Speaking to TOI, Visakhapatnam joint collector
Siva Sankar Lotheti
said, “It has come to our notice that people have not been following social distancing norms in certain areas. We have streamlined the process in rythu bazaars and will look into implementing the same at other stores as well.”
“We urge the people to cooperate and play their roles as responsible citizens to ensure the norms are followed for their own safety,” the joint collector added.
Meanwhile, city police commissioner RK Meena said, “Police have been deployed in almost the entire city and strict actions are being taken if norms are violated. However, it is difficult for us to be present in every single locality.”
“If people cooperate, it will benefit everybody. We have booked cases against those who violated social distancing norms on Sunday morning,” Meena added.
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