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To tackle rising Covid cases, Nashik charges ₹5 for hour-long market visit
PUNE Nashik city police and municipal corporation have decided to charge ₹5 as fees for entering markets for an hour
PUNE 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 the 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 the city’s Cidco market on Wednesday morning, defeating the purpose of the move, even as police struggled to control the crowd.
Some were not happy with the fee. “The new rule makes no sense. I had to pay ₹10 for two hours only to check the availability of a few things in the 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 the Bombay Police Act.
Justifying the decision, Nashik police commissioner Deepak Pandey said, “We have adopted a different approach. The intention behind charging ₹5 is to control the crowd and contain the Covid-19 surge.”
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 face masks in public places, 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 per cent 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.
