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To tackle rising Covid cases, Nashik charges ₹5 for hour-long market visit
However, a day later, people could be seen queuing up to pay the fee and collect their receipts at city’s Cidco market on Wednesday morning, defeating the purpose of the move, even as police struggled to control the crowd
Nashik city police and municipal corporation have decided to charge ₹5 as fees for entering markets for an hour. Tuesday’s decision came as a bid to curb crowd in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases in the Maharashtra city.
However, a day later, people could be seen queuing up to pay the fee and collect their receipts at city’s Cidco market on Wednesday morning, defeating the purpose of the move, even as police struggled to control the crowd.
Some were not very happy with the fee. “The new rule is nonsense. I had to pay ₹10 for two hours only to check the availability of a few things in market,” said Aditi Kulkarni, a student.
According to police officials, charges of ₹5 are applicable for an hour. Anyone found overstaying will be fined ₹500 under relevant sections of Bombay Police Act.
Justifying the decision, Nashik police commissioner Deepak Pandey said, “We have adopted a different approach. The intension behind charging ₹5 is to control crowd and contain the Covid-19 surge.”
Also Read | With 27,918 Covid-19 cases, Maharashtra’s tally at 2,773,435
The city has already witnessed lockdown twice during weekends this month. The state government is now planning stricter measures across Maharashtra to control the spread of the virus.
Recently, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had also pointed out that people were not wearing masks, marriage halls were allowing more than the allowed number of guests, people were crowding market places and not observing social distancing and private offices were calling to work more than 50% of staff in one go.
However, the state has, for now, ruled out a lockdown but could implement stricter curbs from the next week, said reports. The state government is likely to decide on shutting down restaurants, hotels, theatres and reducing business house hours in a meeting slated to be chaired by Thackeray this weekend.
