MARGAO
With the government dragging its feet over extending the Covid lockdown, a number of village panchayats have gone ahead and declared lockdowns in their respective areas.
While allowing essential commodities, including pharmacies and groceries at certain time of the day, most of the panchayat bodies have gone in for a lockdown till May 10 with the sole reason to break the Covid chain.
Amongst the villages that have gone for a lockdown and restrictions including Carmona, Varca, Colva, Sao Jose de Areal, Paroda, Aquem-Baixo, Curtorim, etc.
The Carmona panchayat at its emergency special meeting held on Tuesday decided to request all the commercial shop owners to keep their business open in the morning from 0700 hours to 1200 hours and lockdown afterwards for a period of 15 days to help break the Covid chain in the village to promote and safeguard the health and lives of the people of this village under powers vested on the panchayat under section 60/2 of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act.
After the meeting, Sarpanch Allwyn Jorge and his team personally requested all the shop owners to follow keeping in view the alarming rise in cases in the village.
The sarpanch later told the media there is tremendous pressure on his office from the villagers to act on the issue due to rapid rise of cases in the village. He said the villagers seem to have lost faith in the government and look upon the panchayat for help. Under these circumstances it is the duty of the local bodies to act and take necessary action deemed fit to help & ride over the crisis,” he said, adding that the panchayat shall be strictly monitoring the lockdown period on a daily basis and strive to keep the people indoors all times except for buying essentials in the allowed timings.
Varca Sarpanch Charlton Lourenco issued a notice to the villagers stating that the Varca panchayat body has decided to go for a total lockdown from 6th May 2021 to 9th May 2021.
While saying that all the shop will remain closed during the lockdown, the Sarpanch has requested the villagers to buy the required essential groceries.
Aquem Baixo Sarpanch Anand Zambaulik in a public notice has imposed additional restrictions which will remain in force from May 5-12. Essential services such as groceries, vegetables, poultry will remain open from 7 am to 10 am during the period,.
In his public notice, Paroda Sarpanch Deepak Kharangate said the village panchayat along with the villagers have decided to have a complete lockdown from May 5-10. He, however, said that groceries and essential items shops will remain open from 7 am to 11 am.
Sao Jose de Areal panchayat has also decided to go in for a lockdown. Sarpanch Minguel Gomes in a public notice stated that all commercial establishments operating in the village will remain closed from May 5-10 except for essential commodities, which shall operate from 6 am to 10 am. Pharmacies and medical facilities are exempted from the notice.
The tourist village of Colva has also imposed restriction on operation of commercial establishments. In a notice, Colva acting Sarpanch Tendrila Rodrigues urged all the shops and establishments to keep their premises open from 6 am to 11 am from today till further notice to break the Covid chain and reduce Covid infections.
Curtorim Sarpanch Milagres Rodrigues said that announcement were made in the village along with local MLA Reginaldo Lourenco requesting the people to keep their shops open from 7 am to 1 pm. “The panchayat will take a call on Wednesday whether to keep the open the establishments form 6 am to 10 am”, Milagres said.
