Srinagar: The authorities enforced restrictions on movement and assembly of people for the third consecutive day on Saturday in Kashmir Valley to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Reports reaching GNS said concertina wires and other barricades were erected across many streets including those in old city here to impede the public movement. At some areas, paramilitary forces placed vehicle on intersections including Alamgari Bazar, Hawal and Gojwara to enforce the ban. However, government and essential services employees have been allowed to move on streets, they added.
Police also made announcement asking people to stay indoors and maintain social distancing through public address systems.
The restrictions, under section 144CrPC, were imposed immediately after a 67-year-old woman, who returned from Saudi Arabia, tested positive for coronavirus on March 18, making her the first and only case of COVID-19 in Kashmir Valley so far.
According to officials, the restrictions on movement across Srinagar and other places are aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus. They said emergency and essential services including hospitals, power, water, fire & emergency, supplies & services, patient care facilities, waste disposal, sanitation, offices, ambulances, machinery have been exempted for the purview of the restrictions. Reports of restrictions were also received from other parts of the Valley including south Kashmir’s Shopian, Pulwama, Anantnag and Kulgam districts besides northern Kashmir’s Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora as well as central Budgam and Ganderbal.
The authorities have already banned all types of public transport including bus, minibus, maxi cab and auto passenger services in district Srinagar with immediate effect till further orders.
“To mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, It is hereby ordered that no Bus Service/ Mini Bus Service/Maxi Cab Service/Auto Passenger Service shall ply in District Srinagar with immediate effect till further orders”, reads an order issued by regional transport officer Kashmir.
“Further, no public transport shall enter District Srinagar from the North, South, or central District4of Kashmir Division,” the order added. (GNS)
