Falling in line with Raichur that had already imposed more restrictions than specified in the State government guidelines to prevent crowd gathering, Ballari and Kalaburagi districts, which had been witnessing an increased number of COVID-19 positive cases as well as deaths, also imposed similar restrictions that would be effective from Wednesday.
Speaking to media representatives on Tuesday, Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Vijaya Jyothsna made it clear that a complete lockdown would be imposed for three days in a week – Thursday, Friday and Saturday – as a measure to contain the spread of the virus.
“People would be barred from even purchasing vegetable and groceries. Liquor shops would be closed. Only parcel services would be allowed at hotels. Only those services that are absolutely essential such as hospitals, ambulances and pharmacy shops would be allowed to function as usual. These stricter measures are inevitable to curb the spreading of the virus. We will decide on the continuation or discontinuation of the restrictions in the future after gauging the impacts of the measures,” Ms. Jyothsna said.
Announcing similar measures for Ballari and Vijayanagara districts, Infrastructure Development, Haj and Wakf Minister Anand Singh, who is in charge of undivided Ballari district, said that the people’s movement was completely banned on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday except for medical services.
“The stricter measure is taken as per the recommendations of experts. We are working hard to control the fast-spreading pandemic. We have realised that we have a long way to go to bringing the deadly disease under control. The new and stricter measures are essential to contain the spread of the pandemic,” he told media representatives after attending the video conference meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the district administrative complex in Ballari on Tuesday.
Substantiating the new measures, Ballari Deputy Commissioner Pavan Kumar Malapati made it clear that even essential services such as sale of groceries and milk between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. every day would be banned for the next three days and appealed to the people to cooperate with the administration.
“The distribution of foodgrains and other groceries through the Public Distribution System for the month of May is almost over. Those families that have not received the groceries from fair price shops would be provided with their quota of foodgrains at their doorsteps,” Mr. Malapati said.
Passes would be issued to HOPCOMS executives to sell vegetables at the doorsteps of individual houses. “In the areas where HOPCOMS services are not available, the Tahsildars of the respective areas would issue passes to the vendors who sell vegetables in push-carts in residential localities.”
Mr. Malapati said milk parlours would be allowed to function as usual between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. every day. “But, hotels and restaurants would not be allowed to be open even for parcel services. They can dispatch the food to their customers at their doorsteps,” the Deputy Commissioner said. “Only the good carriers that were issued permits to operate during the lockdown would be allowed. The police personnel on duty would decide on unforeseen people’s movements. There would be no bar for the operation of newspaper vehicles, movement of mediapersons, ATMs, destitute homes, old-age homes and others of the sort. Construction activities can continue with the labourers residing at the construction site.
On the question of labourers employed in industrial units, Mr. Malapati said that the factories would be allowed to function as usual with the employees residing on their factory premises. Those residing outside are not allowed to move from their respective residential areas to their place of work. “There will be no bar on dispatching cooking LPG to the doorsteps of consumers. Other essential services such as hospitals, pharmacy shops, fire, oxygen production, petrol pumps, drinking water and sanitisation would be allowed. Grocery shops, fruit and vegetable shops, chicken, mutton and fish shops, liquor outlets and wholesale vegetable markets are banned.”
Ballari Superintendent of Police Saidulu Adavath warned of filing cases against the violators and appealed to the people to cooperate with the administration in its efforts to control the pandemic.
“We are seizing around 600 vehicles a day on average for violating the lockdown guidelines. We have filed cases against 320 people in the last 10 days. We will go for more stringent measures on the violators,” he added.