PUNE: The district will once again have different night curfew timings compared to the rest of Maharashtra till May 1.
On Wednesday, the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations and the district collector’s office released identical orders, retaining the 6pm-7am night curfew timing on weekdays from Monday to Friday, besides the weekend lockdown from 6pm on Friday to 7am on Monday, till May 1.
On Wednesday, the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) recorded 7,888 Covid-19 cases, its least in two weeks. As many as 10,578 patients in the region recovered in the past 24 hours, the highest since the pandemic began early last year.
The curfew timing set off a debate among citizens as to why Pune was being singled out for an extra two hours of restrictions, when the rest of Maharashtra will follow the 8pm-7am night curfew timing as per the “Break the Chain” order released on April 13 by state chief secretary Sitaram Kunte.
Pune divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao told TOI, “The orders issued by the local authorities are in consultation with the state government considering Pune’s huge number of active cases which is close to 1lakh.”
Rao said, “The state government has given local authorities the powers to take a call regarding additional restrictions according to the situation. It has been communicated to the relief and rehabilitation secretary. After discussions, we decided to make the necessary changes for Pune district from the state government orders issued on Tuesday.”
He added, “We decided to continue with the 6pm-to-7am night curfew and weekend lockdown given the present high number of cases in the district.”
When contacted, Kunte told TOI, “I will speak to the Pune local authorities before making any comment on the issue.”
Pune municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar added, “Pune has been following a certain set of orders. We decided to keep the orders same after considering the situation in the district.”
Rao said the stricter restrictions have shown a difference in Pune’s positivity rate, which was 41.27% in the first week (April 1-7) and had reduced to 31.34% (April 8-14). “This means the restrictions are helping to control crowding and reduce the infection rate. It may be a bit early to conclude, but if these restrictions continue, they may help bring down the positivity rate further as has been suggested by public health experts,” he told TOI.
Citizens also raised concerns about facing hassles as the civic orders restrain them from stepping out without any valid reason, but allow essential shops to remain open from 7am to 6pm. Many expressed fears about how to convince the law enforcers about their purpose for stepping out for essential work like buying groceries, vegetables or visiting a dentist.
Both Kumar and joint police commissioner Ravindra Shisve sought to allay such fears and maintained that people going to neighbourhood shops to buy essentials won’t face any hassles. “No proof is required if you are going to neighbourhood shops,” said Kumar.
Rao said, “Inputs from the police department also had to do with the 6pm-7am night curfew timing in Pune. Police officers were of the opinion that allowing shops to remain open till 8pm would mean more people on the roads even after the closure time. However, we have strictly instructed the police authorities to ensure that there is no unnecessary harsh action against people.”
He said, ‘If people are going to get their essential goods or for vaccination, they should not be harassed. People can travel by their own private vehicle or walk to their local groceries to collect their essentials; similarly if they are going to a vaccination centre.”
The divisional commissioner said there was no complaint from Puneites regarding the weekend lockdown and the order was executed well last week. “To break the chain of transmission, Puneites have to cooperate for just the next two weekends,” he said.
The PMC has allowed house help, cooks, caregivers and drivers and others to visit home. They are allowed to travel between 7am and 10pm. The state in its order on Tuesday had asked the local self governing bodies to take call on it.
The civic body has allowed online and on-call home delivery of food. All online food delivery apps are permitted. Home deliveries are allowed till 11 pm. Restaurants, hotels and bars can give home deliveries. Takeaways are not allowed.
Changes have also been made for the delivery of e-commerce websites, compared to previous order in PMR. Now only essential items and services are allowed to be ordered. If the home delivery has to be provided to more than one family residing in a society, it should be kept at the entrance of the society. Internal delivery of the item should be done by the dedicated building staffers.
All other provisions mentioned in the April 9 order relating to weekend lockdown and night curfew would continue as it is, the order stated.