The Darjeeling district administration has decided to shut big markets once a week for sanitization. The decision to close markets comes amid static figures of daily Covid19 cases that have remained in the district. Administrative officials said markets would be identified based on the positivity rate of the area concerned.

The chairperson of the board of administrators at the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), Gautam Deb, had yesterday said markets under the civic body would remain closed once in a week in view of the rising Covid-19 cases in some areas.

According to Darjeeling District Magistrate S Ponnambalam, the administration had decided to close the markets in the district weekly. Mr Ponnambalam said the days of the closure will be decided after consultations with market committees.

“The decision is applicable for the entire district, but it will be implemented where the number of cases is high. The decision has been taken for the sanitization of the markets,” he said. The officials said that the Fuleswari market in Ward 24 in Siliguri will be declared as a containment zone and will remain shut for a week from 19 July.

Public health specialists, on the other hand, said that the sanitization work will help prevent further transmission of the virus, but that it was more important to control crowds in the markets.

“Huge crowds in markets with little or no regard for masks and social distancing norms have always been a matter of concern,” an expert said. Meanwhile, BJP MLA of Siliguri Shankar Ghosh protested the decision to close the Fuleshwari market for seven days.

According to Mr Ghosh, there are other wards where the number of cases is more than in Ward 24. “There are some more wards where the number of infected persons is higher, according to the population, than this ward, between 1 July and 17 July, but surprisingly, no containment measures have been taken for those wards.

Nineteen persons have been affected in the ward during this period. The decision could be politically motivated or a move to divert the attention of the people from the mismanagement and anomalies taking place in the vaccination process,” he said.

Twenty-eight persons had tested positive in Ward 46, a total of 26 in Ward 30, and 19 patients in Ward 22, said Mr Ghosh, a resident of Ward 24. The Siliguri Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, has intensified its drive against those who do not wear masks.