The military canteen for ex-servicemen here was temporarily closed after thousands thronged the canteen without masks and ignoring physical distancing norms on Tuesday.
The canteen for household provisions at subsidised rates for ex-servicemen was opened after a period of over a month at a wedding hall in the town. What was meant to be the opening of canteen to issue tokens for distribution of provisions at a later date turned out to be a congregation of crowd, suspending all precautions against COVID 19. There was neither adequate arrangements made to prevent gathering of a crowd nor any physical distancing arrangements.
Krishnagiri has the second largest number of ex-servicemen in the State, next only to Vellore and has a large number of beneficiaries availing the provisions in the military canteen located in the town.
There are over 8,000 members in the canteen.
Though the tokens were meant to be issued at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, people made a beeline to the canteen from before dawn. Following this, the authorities ordered closure of the canteen temporarily. M.Nandan, Assistant Director, Ex-servicemen Welfare, said that following complaints of overcrowding and discarding of physical distancing norms, the Collector asked for the canteen’s closure for now.