Panchayats flout Covid combat steps

Slum dwellers queue to receive relief material during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Kolkata. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP)


The tremendous efforts by district administration to inculcate people with the preventive measures to combat the spread of Covid-19 in the district, towns and urban areas have failed to induce those practises.

In the panchayat areas, the villagers and farmers seem unswayed by the measures as most of the villagers, in the early hours of the day, trot to the vegetable market at Baidyabati near the Tarakeshwar and Delhi highway junction, making them vulnerable to virus contagion.

Although, the panchayat areas have relatively lower pile of cases, the threat of cases surging cannot be dispelled. A single case might emerge as threat for the entire neighbourhood.

A cursory look at villages and areas in Nasibpur gram panchayat clearly demonstrates the defiant attitude of the villagers towards the dreadful virus. None wore a face mask, the usual melee persists at different spots in the panchayat areas.

Local villagers and farmers from Molla Simla area and Dhiara Mallick para, asking their names be withheld, said that members of the panchayat have not explained the importance of face masks, hand sanitisers and social distancing to them.

However, twice a month, few ICDS workers come to trace if anyone is suffering from fever.