Social distancing is a casualty here

With hardly any police presence in some areas, people moving freely even during curfew time

April 16, 2020 10:45 pm | Updated 10:45 pm IST - HYDERABAD

Motorists moving freely, violating social distancing norm in old city on Thursday.

Motorists moving freely, violating social distancing norm in old city on Thursday.

The streets in Filmnagar in the uptown Jubilee Hills paint a different picture in these tough lockdown days. People here are going out as if there is no lockdown, with minimal police presence and abundance of street vendors. Especially inside the Basthis here, social distancing is the last thing on people’s minds, as they go about their business of buying essentials easily.

Even in the supermarkets, mandatory social distancing norm is not maintained and people are hardly seeing any police vehicle here. Meanwhile, the same is the situation at Vijayanagar Colony, Humayun Nagar and parts of Asif Nagar and Toli Chowki.

People are moving freely even during the curfew time, that is, 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Several concerned residents claim that police have hardly visited their colony since the lockdown was announced nearly four weeks ago.

No hustle and bustle

Not all localities, however, witness brazen violation of social distancing norm. Factors also contribute to the pattern such as location of large fresh produce markets in the neighbourhood and how effective, affordable are the alternative arrangements. Albeit small, there are pockets, with a good number of residents, in large localities where the guidance is by and large adhered to.

A case in point is some areas in Gachibowli that used to bustle on account of big and small commercial establishments, eateries and movement of vehicles. These also were areas teeming with young working professionals.

Barring a few small neighbourhood shops and large format modern retail stores dealing in essentials and a clutch of pharmacies, all other establishments now remain shut. Some big shops implement measures to prevent overcrowding. Vegetable and fruit vendors are frequenting the localities and gated communities. Vehicular movement has considerably come down. Water tankers, small vans with essentials and two-wheelers of food delivery firms ply.

In the by-lanes of HMT Hills, Shatavahana Nagar, Bhagya Nagar, Pragathi Nagar, Shamshiguda and Yellammbanda localities in KPHB area, no social distancing is followed at street-corner kirana shops, vegetable and fruit vendors who are coming in mini vans and push carts as the buyers have either little or no awareness about the importance of maintaining distance. The norm of mask-wearing is also being flouted by many vendors. Even e-commerce grocery platforms are not following the norm with some delivery boys not wearing mask. Garbage collectors in the area hardly wear mask.

Gated communities

In the West Zone area, people are mostly adhering to lockdown confining themselves to home. The area comprising Hi-Tech City, Business District and Gachibowli has many IT and ITES employees working from home.

Yet within the gated community, for some life is as usual, going for walk without masks within the community or in the vicinity, children gathering in the play areas in groups. When vehicles selling vegetables and fruits, especially mangoes, are parked near the apartment complex gates, people are seen crowding without wearing mask.

“This kind of behaviour will bring to naught all the precautions taken so far. The concept of ‘stay home’ cannot be diluted by roaming freely within the perimeter of the residential complexes when there is potential for infected but asymptomatic persons spreading the coronavirus,” said Neeraj, a member of the managing committee of residents welfare association of a gated community in Manikonda. It is not very far from declared containment zones with COVID positive cases. If adults take walk, will children agree to sit at home, asked a resident.

Parts of Banjara Hills witnessed either lockdown or social distancing violations. Some residents were seen jogging on the roads towards the evening, while others were out walking their dogs.

This did not stop even after 7 pm. Some residents were seen walking in groups of two and three, and in close proximity. Incidents of residents standing on the roads and talking were also witnessed in areas such as Road Number 14.

(With inputs from Abhinay Deshpande, N. Ravi Kumar, B. Chandrashekhar, M. Melly Maitreyi and Syed Mohammed)

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