Covid lockdown norms were breached at several places on Tuesday as the people thronged to markets for Eid.
Since Tuesday morning there were reports that people thronged markers at various places in Kashmir to buy essentials in view of Eid-ul-Fitr. In Srinagar, traffic jams were witnessed at various places. Reports of breach of COVID protocols were received from Baramulla, Kupwara, Sopore and some other places.
People in large numbers were seen outside bakery shops, banks and other business establishments in Srinagar.
Officials here said that at some places the people purchased essentials in view of Eid. “In the afternoon complete restrictions were again imposed at these places,” officials said adding that people are cooperating.
Pertinently, essential services were exempted from the lockdown in Kashmir. So far scores of people have been fined and arrested for violating Covid curfew and other guidelines since April 29 when the lockdown was imposed by the administration.
Chemist shops, LPG/petrol pumps, ATM, media, FCI, e-Commerce, construction activities, Covid-19 vaccination, inter-state movement were also allowed during the lockdown.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday extended the ‘COVID curfew’, which was scheduled to end on Monday, till May 17 in all 20 districts of the Union Territory. Eid-ul-Fitr, the culmination of holy fasting month of Ramadhan also falls within the extended corona curfew period.
The extension in the lockdown in the UT has come in the backdrop of unabated rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in J&K, particularly the summer capital Srinagar which has recorded the major chunk of positive cases during the last 30 days.