Jamshedpur: With the dip in mercury, Steel City residents are making a beeline for picnic spots, including some unconventional ones as the regular and popular locations are shut in view of the outbreak.
On Sunday, many were seen making merry in Dimma Lake and the pandemic and the lack of enough number of proper spots is hardly going to deter people from going out, according to Sonari-based Sarbani Maity. She said, “Every year, we have a number of picnics at various locations in the city and it’ll be no different this year. Although the options in terms of the number of spots are limited this time , that is not going to stop us from letting our hair down.” She urged the government to open the parks and assured them that all safety protocols will be followed to the hilt.
Tata Motors employee Amresh Singh, who organised a picnic along with his colleagues in Narwa on Sunday, said, “Every year, we have three to four picnics with our office staff and we plan to continue with that tradition this time as well. However, we will maintain all the safety norms.”
Meanwhile, many were spotted without masks and violating social distancing norms at the picnic spots. Very few police personnel were present at the spots and hardly anyone from the district administration was there to ensure that Covid protocols were maintained.
This comes after the district witnessed a spike in cases – 80 cases — in the past few days with around 77 cases being recorded in urban areas. On Sunday, deputy commissioner Suraj Kumar asked the incident commanders to conduct extensive drives for an hour every day in areas under their jurisdictions to enforce the safety guidelines.
Police have also been asked to make videos of the people’s movement at public places to identify the violators.