Barricading: City turns into cantonment zone
   Date :26-Apr-2021

Barricades installed at H
 Barricades installed at Hamidia road in Bhopal.
 
 
Staff Reporter :
 
The mismanaged installation of barricades in the State capital, done to restrict unnecessary movement, continued to hassle even those allowed moving during the lockdown. With the onset of Corona Curfew the city was turned to nothing less than a cantonment zone. Each and every road and square saw barricading and police patrolling. This was done by the administration with intent to limit Bhopalites to their doorsteps citing the Covid-19 spread.
 
Nevertheless, administration allowed essential servicemen to move from one place to the other. But within a few days the citizens have started to criticize mismanaged and unplanned barricading done by Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC). Notably, prominent passages are totally blocked to discard mass movement which is affecting the essential servicemen like BMC’s garbage vehicle, Fire brigade, Truckers and the officials working for essential services. Shreya Shrivastava who is a doctor at People Hospital Bhopal and lives at Shahpura says, “I had to travel extra everyday as various passages linking Shahpura and Kolar to MP Nagar are totally blocked. Shaitan Singh Square is blocked with barricades which make me take a long cut to the hospital which is exhausting.
 
I work at hospital and then roam from one square to the other to reach home which is distressing” Another resident Anurag Chourasiya a shop owner at old city Bhopal said, “Wedding season is on people purchased their dresses but due to sudden lockdown it left unattended and undelivered. Now they are rushing post to pillars as various roads are blocked and had to ask people which way to take as there are no sign boards placed.” The administration failed to curb the congestion over streets as more and more people hit roads as soon as sun sets. The problems are faced by the ones rendering essential services they had to take longer routes and give that extra bit as the cost of serving commoners. BMC must look for a system which instead to hindering the servicemen must help them Said Ravi Shankar Shukla, an essential serviceman.