Village in Godhra stays locked down with a smile

VADODARA: While bigger cities might be struggling to implement the lockdown for Covid-19 in the right earnest, this village has no such issue. The residents have adopted to the restrictions well and the village panchayat is ensuring that they stay safe.
Motal village located about 20km from Godhra had started gearing up for Covid-19 ever since reports of the disease spreading outside China started coming in. When the lockdown was announced on March 25, those at the helm of affairs in Motal reacted swiftly.
The village already had CCTV surveillance and it ensured that all the entry points to the village were covered with the existing cameras. Strict monitoring of the feed of these cameras also done by officials and elected representatives of the panchayat.
Village sarpanch Ajaysinh Solanki said that those villagers who were settled elsewhere or had gone outside the village were also advised to avoid coming back. “They too understood the situation. We put barricades to ensure the main road leading to the village was closed,” Solanki said.
According to Solanki, the village was self-sufficient when it came to milk. “We identified a villager who had a three-wheel goods carrier for other purposes. He agreed to bring grocery and medicines after taking orders from our villagers. The villagers got things at their doorstep and he also got some money for the service he provided. He earned a bit despite the lockdown,” Solanki said.
The goods carrier owner Gopalsinh Solanki said that because the panchayat gave the work to him, villagers didn’t have to travel outside the villages for grocery and medicines. A couple of youths from the villages volunteered to help Solanki with the process.
The village gave washable masks and sanitizers to its residents. A part of the expense for this was borne by the panchayat and the rest by donors. Sanitizing of streets of the village was done twice so far. This was done once by the panchayat and once by the dairy cooperative of the village.
Even if the lockdown is lifted in the coming days, the only major concession that the village is looking to give is allowing its residents to come back if they are stranded outside the village. “We will ensure that they self-quarantine for two weeks,” said the sarpanch.