A week after the city witnessed panic buying and concerns over dwindling supplies in shops, some semblance of normalcy returned to the State capital on Monday with the triple lockdown restrictions eased in areas outside the critical containment zones and its buffer area.
The partial withdrawal of restrictions led to a marked increase in vehicular flow, prompting the City police to operate traffic signals after a week on the major arterial roads during the peak hours when shops were permitted to sell essential items. Auto-rickshaws also made a comeback on the city roads following the district administration’s relaxation of curbs.
While the public generally welcomed the move to ease restrictions after a week of stringent restrictions, large sections were dismayed over the move to persist with the ban on home delivery by food aggregators. Only delivery of food supplied through the 10 Janakeeya hotels in the city have been permitted.
The City police booked 38 people and seized 19 vehicles for violating lockdown norms. Petty cases were also registered against 96 people who failed to wear masks outdoors.
The police have also directed auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers to maintain trip-sheet books containing details of passengers and their contact numbers. Complaints regarding the functioning of such vehicles could be conveyed by contacting 0471-2558731 or 0471-2558732.
Meanwhile, other local bodies in the district have begun to restrict the functioning of markets following a police advisory on the possibility of fish being supplied from COVID-19-affected coastal areas in Thiruvananthapuram as well as Kanyakumari.
Attingal municipal chairman M. Pradeep said that six markets, including two private ones, were ordered to close down until further notice. Wayside sale of fish has also been prohibited.
Several fish vendors from places including Anjuthengu normally bring fish in large quantities to the markets here. This was bound to increase with intense lockdown being observed in the Thiruvananthapuram city. Mr. Pradeep pointed out that the ban was implemented in view of the rising number of cases in coastal areas to prevent a possible outbreak in Attingal that is yet to witness a spike in COVID-19 cases.
