Janta Curfew: On move till yesterday, Prayagraj comes to a standstill

PRAYAGRAJ: Doors of homes closed and shutters of shops pulled down, an otherwise hustling city came to a standstill on Sunday as Prayagraj residents chose to stay indoors in compliance with the : On move till yesterday, city comes to a standstill to arrest the spread of novel coronavirus (Covid-19).
On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the call for a Janta Curfew (lockdown) for March 22, wherein he appealed to citizens to stay indoors between 7am and 9pm to stop the infection from spreading.
All streets in the city wore a total deserted look and only a few vehicles, mostly two-wheelers were spotted on roads. With hardly any passengers, drivers of autorickshaws, private taxis and rickshaws also stayed away from work.
Following government orders, bus and train services remained suspended throughout the day. A few passengers who did reach bus depots and railway stations ended up going back disappointed.
Small eateries like dhabas, tea and paan shops were closed too. An eerie silence replaced the usual chaos of honking cars and two-wheelers on city roads.
Similar conditions were observed in neighbouring districts like Kaushambi and Pratapgarh, wherein residents supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal for a 14-hour lockdown.
The residents were joined by traders' associations and social, religious and spiritual organisations in extending support to PM Modi’s appeal.
President of Civil Lines Vyappar Mandal Sushil Kharbanda said that city traders welcomed the move and pledged their support to the initiative.
Many residents took to social media to laud the curfew and urged people to stay indoors.
Markets like Civil Lines, Chowk, Kotwali, Bahadurganj, Mutthiganj, Kydganj, Katra, Sulemsarai, Rajapur, Ghantaghar, Allahapur and Teliyarganj were closed. Only shops selling essential commodities like groceries and foodgrains were open for business.
Civil Lines resident Manish Mehrotra said, "The people of this country must unite to fight against Covid-19. The janata curfew is a great way to stop the virus from spreading further."
"It has already claimed six lives in India and we need to be very careful about the way deal with novel coronavirus," he added.
Ravi Kesarwani, who lives in Mutthiganj, said, "As individuals, we should understand our responsibility towards the society in such testing times."
Meanwhile, police patrolled the streets on Sunday afternoon to keep people from gathering unnecessarily on roads.
Police arranged for roadways buses to ferry passengers who had arrived at Prayagraj Junction after de-boarding three trains. The passengers belonged to different parts of the country and were headed to Prayagraj and adjoining districts.
IG (Prayagraj Range) KP Singh said, "When people from different parts of the country arrived at railway station, they started moving towards Civil Lines bus stand. Some of them were also looking for public transport. We arranged for eight roadways buses for those who wanted to go Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Jaunpur and other neighbouring areas."
"For around half an hour, a chaos-like situation prevailed at Civil Lines bus stand till the roadways buses arrived," he added.
"We have sanitised buses which were ferried the passengers to their destinations. They were also screened by a team of doctors.."
Meanwhile, Prayagraj SSP Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj and district magistrate Bhanu Chandra Goswami took stock of the situation.