Thanjavur town on Tuesday eased into the curfew slowly with roads witnessing substantial movement of vehicles and people even after 6 p.m., when the State government enforced curfew across Tamil Nadu.
Though police teams were seen moving around the town from 5.30 p.m., announcing that the prohibitory orders would come into effect at the stroke of 6 p.m., several commercial establishments, particularly snacks, flower-vending and juice shops, tried to extend their business hours by a few minutes. However, they received a stern warning from the patrolling teams.
Public transport, including autorickshaws, went off the road by 7 p.m. When intercepted by the police, some of the autorickshaw drivers could be seen pleading that they were headed for their shed or house and that the passengers would be dropped enroute.
Once the curfew period began, most of the eateries started shutting down service and encouraged customers to accept food parcels as directed by the State government. But the tea shops had wind up business as they could not offer tea in parcel since the use of plastic covers had been banned.
“I must think twice before lifting the shutters of my shop tomorrow since it will be hard to comply with the crowd restriction rule in this business,” said Ramu, who runs a tea-cum-snacks shop at Mangalapuram on Medical College Road.
On the other hand, Mallika, who runs a kiosk near Municipal Colony on the same road, said she was hopeful that she could carry on with her business since the flow of customers to her shop always remained normal in view of the nature of goods available for sale at her outlet.
Meanwhile, Collector M. Govinda Rao in his capacity as District Magistrate promulgated an order under Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code on Tuesday evening prohibiting congregation in public places in the interest of public health and quarantining all suspected cases of COVID-19 and foreign returnees for such a period and in such a manner as decided by the local health authorities.
A similar order was issued by Tiruvarur Collector T. Anand on Tuesday evening announcing the clampdown of curfew in Tiruvarur district.
