FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Several panchayats across Goa went in for a voluntary lockdown for a few days. Several panchayats from Mormugao taluka went in for a voluntary lockdown in their panchayat jurisdiction a few days ago. Essential shops were open for a period of time to enable people buy essential supplies.
Few days back the village panchayats of Sancoale, Cansaulim, Velsao, Nagoa, Verna, Quelossim, Cortalim, Chicalim and Bogmalo went for a voluntary lockdown for a few days with the essential shops keeping open for few hours.
When the sarpanchas from Verna, Cansaulim, Chicalim, Velsao and Cortalim villages were contacted, they said this decision was taken following the rising graph of Covid positive cases and the related mortality rates in the past few days in the state. There was a state of fear among the people following news reports about the widespread cases of Covid in the villages and in the cities. These were some the reasons which prompted the panchayats to go in for a self lockdown to break the chain of Covid 19 and save people from infection.
Local vendors and shop keepers when contacted seemed to be in favour of the local bodies’ decision to go for a lockdown for a few days in order to avoid the catastrophic outcome of the virus. Many shop keepers speaking on condition of anonymity said the govt should have opted for a state-wide complete lockdown for a few days to bring down the positive cases and to break the chain.
Another shopkeeper Cortalim said people's lives were more important than business. The shopkeeper reasoned saying business not happening for a few days was not a problem but if people were infected by the virus, there would be a loss of business, lives, time and money.
When asked whether going for a voluntary lockdown in the panchayat area would help, many people responded saying the lockdown would make people stay at home thus ensuring people would not gather in large numbers thus stopping infection from spreading. This would also help people give attention to their household, personal hygiene and sanitization of their premises.
Meanwhile twenty six village panchayats of Bardez have declared a voluntary partial lockdown in their village while nine panchayats of Pernem Taluka have declared a voluntary lockdown.
This also includes three constituencies of Bardez such as Calangute constituency, Aldona constituency, Porvorim constituency which are completely under lockdown. The twenty six village panchayats are Calangute, Candolim, Arpora-Nagoa (Containment Zone) Parra, Moira, Aldona, Bastora, Pomburpha Olaulim, Nachinola, Uccasaim-Paliem-Punola, Penha de Franca, Salvador do Mundo(Containment Zone), Soccoro, , Pilerne-Marra, Saligao, Guirim, Reis Magos, Colvale, Thivim, Sirsaim, Assnora, Oxel, Siolim -Marna, Siolim-Sodiem, Verla -Canca(containment zone) and Assagao of Bardez Taluka and Parcem, Agarwada-Chopdem, Mandrem, Morjim, Tuem, Corgao, Keri-Tiracol, Arambol and Warkhand-Nagzar of Pernem Taluka.
The village panchayats which declared a partial lockdown had restricted timing from 6am to 12pm and some even till 1pm for essentials to remain open when the public could move around. Also during this partial lockdown keeping aside medical services, non essentials are kept shut failing which the panchayats will impose fines as well as cancel the establishment license for six months.
Panch members and Sarpanchas claimed that a voluntary lockdown was needed since Covid cases and fatalities in their villages were on the rise. Panch members of different panchayats were of the view that if they had not issued a warning stating that non essential establishments would be fined along with cancellation of license then they would have continued to keep their shops open.
“This decision was taken because Covid cases in the village were on the rise and to enforce the lockdown we decided to impose fines since the fear of getting fined and cancellation of license will force the non essentials establishments to remain shut while essentials are supposed to remain open only till 1pm “ said Thivim Sarpanch Sharmila Gadekar.
Trupti Kandolkar Sarpanch of Nachinola Panchayat said,” Lockdown was necessary because even people who were Covid positive had started roaming around in the village and the situation had gone out of control. We are enforcing lockdown by creating awareness in the village”.
“Everyday Covid cases were increasing in the Aldona Village and four people from Aldona Village lost their lives because of Covid infection in a single day due to which we had to enforce a lockdown”, said Pranesh Naik the Sarpanch of Aldona.
While giving full support to the decisions taken by their individual panchayats, villagers said the lockdown was needed. “Voluntary lockdown by panchayat was needed because people continued to move around even when the CM requested them to no do it. CM had issued guidelines but people ignored them due to which cases kept increasing day by day. Voluntary lockdown by villages was required” said Prayag Naik a resident of Nachinola.
“We support the government and panchayat in the partial lockdown decision but during this lockdown period, the panchayat should have kept the essentials including grocery stores open for the entire day. Since the panchayat have set restricted timing for essentials, there is a crowd every morning. A lockdown was needed but essentials should be kept open during the day” said Deepak Naik a resident of Mandrem
"The number of fatalities detected everyday has created fear amongst the people. The number of cases may come down if people's movement stops. Since people are not moving around keeping the shops closed is not a problem" Ajit Mandrekar a shop owner said. "Health is wealth so keeping the business shut for few days is so much better than losing lives", another vendor Shekhar Raut from Agarwada said.
"People have continued to move around even when the panchayat imposed a lockdown", a local Sneha Salgaonkar said.
Parcem Sarpanch Pragati Sopte said" People as well as shop keepers were not ready to keep their shops shut and stay indoors. Also positive cases started increasing in the village due to which we had to take decision to impose a lockdown".
Sandip Vazarkar Soccorro Sarpanch said," We are enforcing the lockdown that is imposed in the village by monitoring the status along with the police and make sure people keep their shops shut".
