Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru/Udupi (MS)

Mangaluru/Udupi, Jan 9: Normal life came to a standstill in the twin districts on Saturday January 8 on account of the weekend curfew ordered by the state government in the wake of the rapidly spreading cases of Omicron variant of Covid.

Emergency services were available. Though public transport was given permission to operate, the movement of people was scant. Opportunity was also given to pre-planned family programmes and marriage functions. No complaints of violating Covid guidelines was received by the administration.

In the city of Mangaluru, people were allowed to buy groceries till 9 am. After 10 am, police installed barricades on the road and prevented people wandering unnecessarily and some cases were also booked.

In total 61 check posts were installed in the district of Dakshina Kannada. Out of this 30 were within the limits of Mangaluru police commissionerate, nine on Kerala border region and 22 in other areas of the district.

Hotels and restaurants were opened but only parcel service was allowed. Central and state government offices were closed on account of second Saturday of the month.

In Subrahmanya handful number of devotees visited Kukke Subrahmanya temple. In Beltangady, Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala campus was looking empty without devotees. Police inquired people coming from outstation districts and sent them back.

KSRTC operated only 50% of buses. Divisional controller Arun said that on Sunday also they will run the same number of buses as passengers are very less in number.

Inter-state passengers on buses had to face problems due to Covid restrictions in Karnataka.

More than 120 vehicles were confiscated in the district of Dakshina Kannada by the police for unnecessarily wandering. In Mangaluru city alone, 110 vehicles were confiscated and fine was slapped. Out of 517 cases, 369 were booked for not wearing mask. 

Hariram Shankar, DCP, Mangaluru said, “All police officers are on duty at their respective areas. Shops not necessary were asked to be shut. Around 99% of city dwellers have cooperated well with the police.”

In Udupi, no crowd was observed in markets due to weekend curfew. In religious places also crowd was not there as people were not allowed. As holiday was declared to schools and colleges, children and youth were seen playing various games like cricket, volleyball in house verandah or open grounds.

Some vendors expressed unhappiness for not allowing them to do trading. Some organizations provided their own transport to their workers. Rs 3,800 was collected as fine for not wearing mask in 38 cases in the city area.