The ‘Janata Curfew’ on Sunday brought to the fore family bonding, mutual cooperation and the need to stay united in the face of the threat of COVID-19.
Though many trains, which were scheduled to start between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. from the originating station, have been cancelled, other long distance trains, which were already on the run, were allowed to continue. Those who came by these through trains had a tough time in reaching their homes from Visakhapatnam railway station on Sunday.
A photo journalist was touched when he saw a professor and his daughter, who came by Prasanthi Express from Puttaparthi, walking with their luggage towards the Asilametta flyover with their luggage in the hot sun. “We waited for an hour but there were no autorickshaws, buses or cabs. There was no one at home to pick us up,” Prof. Krishna Vamsi of GITAM told the photo journalist, who dropped them in his car at MVP Colony.
Passengers walked over long distances with their luggage to reach their homes and every one was not lucky enough. A policewoman was seen dropping a man going towards Gopalapatnam at NAD Kotha Road Junction on Sunday morning. A youth from Uttar Pradesh walked down from the Railway Station to Maddilapalem, about 4 km away.
A man coming from Rajamahendravaram to go to Maddilapalem, was helped by a few persons, including a journalist, to reach his destination. Migrant labourers from Odisha, who came by train from Kerala, were seen waiting outside the RTC Complex, waiting for transport on their onward journey to Odisha. A tea stall was kept open near the RTC Complex and it served the needs of the stranded passengers.
Many of the temples, including the smaller ones, were closed by 7 a.m. Appeals were made by the priests over the public address systems asking the people of surrounding areas not to come out of their homes between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m., and thereby check the spread of COVID-19 virus that was threatening mankind.
The messages were heard on the mike from the Sampath Shirdi Sai temple, located on a hillock, beside the Marripalem Highway after 6 a.m. and they stopped by 6.45 p.m. Messages in Hindi and Telugu, were also heard on the mike from a mosque at Hussain Nagar in the same area asking people not to come out of their homes till 5 p.m.
