Alwar locality locked down after surge in Covid-19 cases, Barmer still under 15-hour curfew

Authorities in Rajasthan’s Alwar announced a lockdown on Thursday morning in areas under the Kotwali police station area after a surge in Covid-19 cases. The lockdown will be in place until August 12.

The lockdown which came into force at 4 am caught most people unawares and even those involved related to essential services were stopped at various places.

“There was some confusion in the morning but the administration will consider the issues and smoothen things,” Alwar collector Anadi said

Superintendent of police Tejeswani Gautam said that 38 points have been made by the police and 400 police personnel have been deployed in the area to maintain law and order. Barricades have been set up in all areas under the Kotwali police station.

According to the lockdown guidelines, there will be relaxation from 7 am to 11 am for essential items such as groceries and milk, but on Thursday this was not followed. The district collector said the lockdown will be a smooth affair from Friday.

The business community of the city said that the partial lockdown was unfair to some. They said they requested the district collector for complete lockdown.

Alwar has 3,662 Covid-19 cases, out of which 2,157 are active.

Rajasthan’s Covid-19 tally stands at over 40,000 cases out of which 11,097 are active cases. The number of deaths in the state is 663.

In Udaipur, district collector Chetan Devra extended night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 and also restricted some commercial activities in the city on the weekend. Devra issued the order on July 27.

The restrictions don’t apply to the police officials, medical stores and other essential services.

Businessmen, shopkeepers and hoteliers of the city are unhappy with the decision. Some of them met the collector on Wednesday and requested him to allow commercial activities until 11pm. Members of chamber of commerce also had a meeting with the administration and said the community had already suffered losses during the three months of statewide lockdown.

In Jodhpur, a night curfew from 8 pm to 6 am is still in force.

In Barmer, after a 7-day lockdown in the first week of July, the city is now under a 15-hour curfew between 5pm and 9am. The restrictions are only in the city area; elsewhere in the districts there are no restrictions.

Barmer has so far recorded 1,343 Covid-19 cases out of which 555 are active..