Visuals from a vegetable market in Punjab’s Ludhiana have come out where hundreds of people are seen gathered in an area flouting COVID-19 restrictions.
Amid an improvement seen in the national COVID-19 tally, scary images from Punjab have come out depicting gross violation of COVID-19 norms. Hundreds of people were seen gathered around a wholesale vegetable market in Ludhiana on Monday morning. Apart from not maintaining social distance, people were also seen without masks.
A vegetable vendor, Shivam informed ANI that the crowd gathers at this time as shops are closed during weekends.
“I have been working here for 10-15 years. More customers are visiting here because the market is closed on weekends,” added vegetable vendor Shivam.
A customer in the market who was not wearing a mask told reporters that she has covered her face with dupatta. Another frustrated vendor added that mandis are not provided with sanitisers or masks and police also harass them unnecessarily. Another reason why the particular mandi was crowded with people is due to the closure of vegetable shops in residential areas, added another vendor, Ram Shankar.
He further mentioned that the vendors have not option but to work for their daily earning.
“Since all the vegetable shops in residential areas are shut, there is a lot of rush here in the mandi. We are afraid but we can’t do anything, we have to work for our livelihood,” mentioned Ram Shankar.
The Punjab Government had recently announced its decision to extend COVID-induced lockdown restriction till June 10 to break the chain of the virus.
Farmers protest lockdown in Punjab
Parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and nearby areas are already going through the fear of COVID spread as large gatherings of protesting farmers are witnessed. Amid their protest against the three new farm bills, farmers recently took out protest marches against the weekend lockdown imposed by the Punjab Government. The protestors also appealed to shopkeepers in the state to keep their shops open and defy the restrictions. Farmers had taken out protest marches at several places, including Moga, Patiala, Amritsar, Ajnala, Nabha, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Bathinda.
Punjab COVID-19 cases
Meanwhile, the state reported 2,627 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the total tally to 5,65,415, with 127 deaths bringing the toll to 14,432. Currently, there are 39,263 active coronavirus cases while 5,371 people have been recovered from the infection. The positivity rate in Punjab is at 3.92 per cent.
(Inputs from ANI)
