GUWAHATI, April 1 - Although health experts are constantly appealing to people to maintain social distancing as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, yet in Guwahati, a large section of public are not following the norm at all.
In one such incident on Wednesday, the district administration machinery of Kamrup (Metro) had to use police force to control a large crowd that gathered at a public place at Bagharbari area here. According to Deputy Commissioner Biswajit Pegu, a large number of people gathered at that site when a team of the district administration had gone there to distribute free ration to the economically weaker section.
It is noteworthy that after the nationwide lockdown, the Kamrup (Metro) district administration started a drive to provide free ration and other food items to the economically weaker section comprising rickshaw-pullers, cart-pullers, daily wage labourers, etc.
�When news spread that a team of district administration was on its way to distribute free food, a large number of people rushed to the spot. But our team went there only to distribute food items through a door-to-door drive. So, ultimately, we used police force. Such gathering of people can be very dangerous in such a medical emergency situation,� Pegu said.
Police officials said it took around half an hour to control the situation where around a thousand people had gathered.
A video that surfaced in the social media also showed that over a thousand people, both young and old, gathered at the spot. They all stood in a queue, but without maintaining social distancing.
