Team Herald
PERNEM: Though the State government has not laid down any specific directions on holding of weekly markets, hundreds of people from Pernem Taluka were seen flouting the COVID norms by not maintaining social distancing and not wearing face masks during the weekly market day at Pernem.
The Pernem weekly market which takes place on Thursday witnessed the presence of hundreds of people from Pernem Taluka including senior citizens and children.
A concern was also expressed on spread of coronavirus since the vendors who setup the market were from other States.
Just like any other normal day, the people visited the weekly market. However, the Section 144 CrPC, which states that not more than four people should gather, was totally violated by the people who came for shopping.
Active citizens of Pernem also raised concern over the irresponsible behaviour of the local authorities including the police who did not bother to keep a check on the movement in the market saying that it’s a moving crowd.
“We don’t know whether the vendors who have come from other States are COVID-19 negative or not. They can be carriers of the virus. Whole day they sat in the market and interacted with hundreds of people. None of them were using sanitisers or found sanitising the goods,” said, a local resident, Suryakant Chodankar.
“These people have flaunted the COVID norms wherein social distancing was completely violated. COVID cases in the State are rising day by day and in such conditions such irresponsible behaviour on part of the authorities is not acceptable. The government is not ready for lockdown since they think it’s going to affect the economy, however, risking the lives of the people is also not a solution,” another local Subhash Naik said.
