Gandhinagar: With people showing flagrant disregard to appeals for voluntary restraint in movement, the Gujarat government put the entire state under lockdown and announced punitive measures for violation of norms in this regard.
Gujarat Director General of Police Shivanand Jha told media persons on Monday that the entire state will be under lockdown from midnight of Monday to March 31.
”State borders will remain sealed and action will be taken against violators of this lockdown. All non-essential movement has been banned in the state though essential supplies as well as necessary transport of goods will continue.
The authorities in Gujarat were struggling to enforce a lockdown in the principal cities of the state as the number of corona virus cases crossed 30 with one fatality reported from Surat.
According to the principal secretary Health, Jayanti Ravi, there are 11,108 persons quarantined across Gujarat and 224 have been put under mandatory government quarantine.
Ten FIRs have been lodged for beach of prescribed quarantine protocols. With people in principal cities and towns of the state showing flagrant disregard of the official instructions issued by the authorities, officialdom has been forced to tighten restrictions.
Videos of people banging thalis and clapping while congregating on streets in large numbers in Ahmedabad and other towns of the state went viral on social media worldwide and left a world reeling under the onslaught of this pandemic, aghast at the lack of seriousness shown by citizenry in the Indian prime minister’s own home state.
This came as a sharp contrast to the very high level of voluntary restraint being exercised by people in major cities of the world. Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said that only one thing can save us from this and that is staying home and observing all guidelines that have been given to people.
To send a clear message that it means business, the authorities have filed cases against 40 people in Khadia area of Ahmedabad who observed ‘corona festival’ dancing and indulging in revelry on the road. Instructions have also gone out to the police statewide to deal with utmost seriousness any violation by people of instructions.
Meanwhile Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday spoke to patients affected by corona virus undergoing treatment in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara through videoconferencing from the CM Dashboard Command Control Centre here.
