The clamping of night curfew from December 31 to January 2 dampened New Year revelry in Kochi, what with agencies in charge of grounds and other public spaces being forced to turn down requests to host musical nights and other events.
This resulted in Ernakulam DTPC having to turn down requests to host musical events at the otherwise crowded Durbar Hall Ground and at Vasco da Gama Square in Fort Kochi which generally see huge crowds.
Even before the announcement of the night curfew, organisers of the Cochin Carnival had cancelled the “burning of Papanji” annual event at midnight on New Year Eve in Fort Kochi, the carnival rally that is generally held on January 1 and a beach-bike race, foreseeing huge crowd turnout and the potential of these events to become a trigger for yet another wave of the pandemic.
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“We also wanted to prevent large-scale peddling of narcotic drugs during such events. All through rest of the carnival, mike announcements were made exhorting people to maintain social distancing,” said an office bearer of the organising committee.
Friday evening saw people rushing back home or to their home towns for the weekend, to arrive at their destination before the 10 p.m. curfew took effect. Police personnel were present along arterial roads to ensure that New Year revelry went on without law and order problems and to enforce curfew.