MAPUSA
With the government found wanting to control the Covid crisis, people are now taking over the fight against the deadly virus.
Panchayats with the help of local MLAs have started declaring infected areas as containment zones and imposing lockdown within their jurisdictions.
Following the footsteps of Calangute, Candolim and Arpora-Nagoa panchayats, two panchayats in Porvorim constituency “ Penha-de-France and Salvador do Mundo “ have called for a nine-day “containment red zone” in their villages from May 1 onwards and declared total lockdown in the area.
Movement of the public has been restricted between 6 am and 11 am for purchase of essentials, while shutting down the entire village for the remaining part of the day and night.
The direction is accompanied with a list of services permitted, prohibited and restricted.
Interestingly, the panchayat order is accompanied with a footnote stating that all the conditions are subject to the collector’s order which will be issued in due course.
The decision was ostensibly taken due to the spike in Covid-19 cases and to break the chain of infection in the panchayat areas.
“We were forced to take this decision as Covid cases have risen exponentially in our area. We have requested people to close the establishments from 11 am onwards. So far, we have received full cooperation from the people,” said Sandeep Salgoankar, Sarpanch of Salvador-do-Mundo.
Two days ago, the three panchayats of Calangute, Candolim and Arpora-Nagoa had come out with similar orders and called for an 11-day lockdown within their jurisdiction up to May 9.
Former minister and Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte informed that with the rising cases of Coronavirus in the constituency, the people had no option but to go for a lockdown.
“The Covid situation in Porvorim has become dangerous and scary. The official number of active cases is 1,500 but the actual number will be double. Micro-containment zones cannot be identified in Porvorim because the spread is not at a single point. It is spread in wide areas. So we need to go into isolation and lockdown. We expect the nine-day lockdown will cut the spike,” Khaunte said.
He said ground reality demanded proactive action, while the collector and the deputy collector were only interested in paperwork.
“We followed all protocols and also had two meetings with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. The four-day lockdown is become a joke. The panchayats are moving and requesting all shops to close down.
