The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has flayed the officials for forcing all shops and commercial establishments in Srivilliputtur town to close down “without any rationale” and proper Government Order.
The party Virudhunagar district secretary, K. Arjunan, wondered why the Local Incident Commander of Srivilliputtur taluk, R. Murugan, announced through the media that the entire Srivilliputtur municipal town would be a containment zone for eight days from July 26.
“Virudhunagar Collector has announced that the number of containment zones in the district was only 166 and out of which only six wards of the municipality were declared as containment zones,” Mr. Arjunan said.
Against the backdrop of “an unofficial” declaration, police personnel forced closures of shops that were opened after Sunday’s complete lockdown.
“When there was no legal order for containment zone, how can the authorities force shopkeepers to close down the shops?” he asked.
The CPI (M) was of the opinion that COVID-19 infection was widely spread among the district.
“In fact, the infection was less in Srivilliputtur when compared to Sivakasi and Rajapalayam. When the normal practice is to close only those shops, offices and other establishments whenever infections were detected among their staff members, why should the entire town be closed just because there were more infections in the makeshift vegetable market,” he asked.
A team of party functionaries, including its Srivilliputtur town secretary, V. Jayakumar and union secretary, S.V. Sasikumar, met the Incident Commander and asked him to stop the police from forcing closure of shops.
“The Incident Commander has said that closure of shops was totally voluntary and no one will be forced to close shops,” Mr. Arjunan said.
The sudden announcement by the officials about the week-long containment across the town led to anxious people thronging the market areas to buy essential goods.
