All urban areas to be lockdown till March 31
| Date :23-Mar-2020 |
Bhupesh Baghel
Staff Reporter :
RAIPUR,
Along with 75 other cities in the country where positive cases of Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 have been found, capital Raipur along with all other urban areas in Chhattisgarh have been locked-down till March 31. The decision was aired by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in his message to the people of the state after a decision was taken in this direction during the review meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary on COVID-19 status with Chief Secretaries of States. In his message the Chief Minister while extending his gratitude to the people for complying with Janta Curfew on Sunday and lock-down on Saturday. He said not only in urban areas but in rural areas also people religious followed the curfew and didn’t come out of their houses and complied with their social and national responsibility. He added that this compliance has made him strongly believe that if people bring into compliance their social and national responsibly for few more weeks and remain in their houses, then both the country and Chhattisgarh will be able to defeat Novel Coronavirus. The Chief Minister said in times of crisis the people of our country and Chhattisgarh have always shown dedication and patriotism.
In order to check further spread of this deadly Novel Corornavirus in the state, some significant decisions have been taken. He said nationally and internationally, lock-down and isolation has been considered as best possible way to defeat COVID-19 and is being complied with strictly. Keeping this in view, the state government has decided to extend this curfew till March 31, in all urban areas in the state. During this state of curfew, all offices, institutions, transport services and other activities will remain closed.
Emergency services like medical shops, kirana stores, general stores, vegetable shops, milk parlour and petrol pumps along with services like power supply, water supply, domestic gas supply, municipal sanitation services and solid waste management services apart from commercial transportation services of emergency materials will remain unaffected and work as usual.State citizens can call at toll free no 104 for medical emergencies and 112 for other emergencies. The Chief Minister said the decision is hard to comply with but is has to be implemented strictly in order to save precious lives of people. Under this hour of crisis, the state government and all its departments is with the people and with people’s support will be successful in defeating the COVID-19 menace.
Earlier, a high level meeting was held today morning with Chief Secretaries of all States by the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. In view of the need to contain the spread of COVID 19, it was agreed that there is urgent need to extend the restrictions on the movement of non-essential passenger transport including inter-state transport buses till 31st March 2020. Following detailed discussions, the State Governments were advised to issue appropriate orders to allow only essential services to operate in the 75 districts which have reported confirmed cases or casualties relating to COVID 19. As per the decisions taken in the review meeting, all train services will remain suspended till March 31, 2020 including sub-urban rail services. However, goods trains are exempted. Inter State passenger transport also to be suspended till 31st March 2020.