Thursday 28 Mar 2024

Can curfew break the Covid chain?

| MAY 07, 2021, 11:52 PM IST

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has announced a 15-day ‘curfew’ from Sunday, mind you, not a 'lockdown', and he has made it doubly sure, post his press conference, that he did not utter that ‘dreaded’ word. The new arrangement will mean that essential items and groceries will be allowed between 7 am and 1 pm and restaurant kitchens and pharmacies will be allowed to be open from 7 am to 7 pm. The police are expected to strictly crack down on those violating the new protocol. 

For a State that is being ravaged by the onslaught of Covid, the belated curfew announcement comes as a welcome breather which could go a long way to curb transmission. It’s something better than nothing. However, much will depend on the seriousness with which the government is going ahead with the curfew, given the fact that restrictions in the past have proved to be half-hearted and patchy leaving a lot of areas vulnerable, negating the very objective of the exercise.

The CM may have steered away from lockdown and settled for a curfew due to pulls and pressures from various quarters, and for reasons best known to him. But shifting the blame of Covid spread to the people is unacceptable, given the fact that unlocks, protocols, restrictions, enforcement and policy decisions are decided by the government alone. If weddings and other social functions were allowed with restrictions, there should have been a fair understanding what these imply, keeping in mind the cultural and social background of the people. Moreover, Sawant should have pulled back the moment reality dawned that the situation was going out of hand. Why were functions allowed to continue?

To take this argument a step further, has the government led by example? What about the full-blown parties held by ministers, including the party which saw Tourism Minister Manohar Babu Ajgaonkar dancing to a crowd? What about the crowded birthday celebrations of ministers which even the CM was a part of? What about the campaigns that were conducted in both the phases of municipal elections and the gross violations at official functions? What about the recent bridge inauguration by Sawant? 

We must acknowledge the fact that the government is providing free treatment to citizens, but that cannot offset the failure in securing lives and the failure to provide timely facilities. The State government has to take full ownership of the crisis that we are currently in. Repeated pleas for lockdown have fallen on deaf ears, questions on allowing free entry to inter-State visitors were ignored, till the time High Court intervened. An average count of 40-50 deaths per day, and a 50 per cent infection rate failed to move those in power.

Whether it is a curfew, lockdown or restrictions, the objective should be solely to break transmission and bring down the rate of infections and fatalities. It’s better late than never. Let this be a collective effort to salvage the situation.

 


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