Residents continue to flout Covid norms in cit markets

Ludhiana: People continue to flout the norms for Covid prevention as many of them can still be seen without masks in busy markets while some of them even ignore social distancing norms. This is at a time when the number of Covid cases and fatalities due to the disease have witnessed a surge in recent times in the district.
TOI conducted an on the ground assessment of the situation, especially the compliance of norms for Covid prevention and checked whether people were wearing masks and following social distancing norms in busy markets.
At Chaura Bazar market, which on normal days brims with human activity, there was not much rush in the area during the day but more people were visible in the evening. In the market during the day many people were seen roaming around without masks, while in the evening many persons were not following social distancing norms.
Similarly, even as Sarabha Nagar market does witness some rush in the evening, there were fewer people in the market during the day. At this market, a sizeable number of people were not either wearing masks or were not wearing it properly.
Ghumar Mandi, which normally has a good number of people coming for shopping, the rush was missing. However, in the market it was not difficult to spot a person without a mask. Another market, Jawahar Nagar, which recently had been in news for wrong reasons, doesn’t have much rush during the day but still had people without masks or not wearing these properly. In this market, norms like wearing of masks and maintaining social distancing go for the toss in the evening hours as it witnesses huge rush around that time.
Many residents said that though the law enforcing agencies were acting tough in many old city areas, it has not been able to ensure full compliance of norms in posh areas and markets like Sarabha Nagar, Model Town, Dugri, Ferozepur road, Pakhowal road, Dandi Swami road and BRS Nagar, etc.
Ram Lal, who runs a shop at Mata Rani Chowk said that the authorities were enforcing norms like wearing of masks and social distancing in the old city area and it was good that they were doing so as it was for the benefit of people. However, he said many educated people in posh areas were not following the rules and the authorities should ensure that they do.
However, there are people who say that even as a large population are following some norms and are wearing masks, but even they remove these at food joints.
“We people have deep love for food, especially street food, so no wonder people risk lives for it. I have seen many people continue to throng the food joints in many markets of the city, especially on Dandi Swami road. Though there is no problem if people follow social distancing norms at such street food joints, on many occasions I saw people standing close to each other and that too without masks,” said Ravi Kumar, a city resident. He added that the authorities should implement the scheme which they had executed at the start of curfew and should ask shops and joints to have spaces marked for customers.
Meanwhile, the district administration said that a large percentage of people were wearing masks. Deputy commissioner Varinder Sharma, who was returning to office after meeting private hospitals’ representatives, said that he could see 90% people wearing the masks. He added that they were creating awareness among people with regard to following norms.