Lockdown enforces strictly across JK, Govt to regulate grocery shop timings

Srinagar/ Jammu: As Kashmir reported its first death due to coronavirus and a jump in positive cases, the government further tightened lockdown measures across Jammu & Kashmir on Friday.
The district administrations decided to regulate the timings of chemists and grocery shops across Jammu and Kashmir, in a bid to reduce the number of people on the roads.
“In Jammu district, movement passes related to supply of groceries and essential commodities will be routed through Deputy Director Legal Metrology and all passes related to Chemists will be routed through Deputy Controller Drugs,’’ Jammu District Magistrate Sushma Chauhan wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, supply of grocery and essential items, besides chemist shops were included under essential services.
In Ramban, District Magistrate Nazim Zai Khan issued an order under Section 34 of Disaster Management Act 2005 and declared all the mosques in the area as administrative quarantine centres, where people of Tableegi Jamat on their recent return from outside the district had stayed or were residing.
Claiming that people of Tableegi Jamat were traveling to Ramban district from various areas, the district magistrate said, there is apprehension regarding the spread of COVID-19, especially for the residents of the area.
The Jammu Municipal Corporation too, in an order, banned all sorts of construction activity, including those earlier permitted by it, in areas under its jurisdiction as it was not listed under essential services.
Meanwhile, police and civil administration in other districts had constituted teams of officers and notified their contact numbers asking public to call them in case they needed supply of any essential commodity.
The vigilance of police against lockdown violators on Thursday, which included stamping them with messages like “Corona lockdown violator” showed results on the ground as most roads wore a deserted look today.
Para medical staff at Government Medical College Hospital Jammu held a demonstration for nearly two hours to protest against the non-availability of proper pick and drop facility for them. The hospital administration has pressed into service, ambulances to carry nearly three dozen people against a seating capacity of six to seven, the protesters alleged, demanding that SRTC buses must be deployed for them so that they can maintain social distancing during travel.
Later, however, they resumed work following intervention by the GMC principal Dr Sunanda Raina and Hospital Superintendent Dr Dara Singh.