DIBRUGARH, March 31 - Go to any pharmacy and ask for a paracetamol tablet or ibuprofen or similar, the pharmacy owner will first take down the customer�s name, phone number and reason for buying the drug. This has led to funny situations, but it is learnt this is on the orders from the Dibrugarh district administration. The move is to have a database of people having fever or cold conditions, and to treat the person with suspicion of being a possible COVID-19 carrier.
At any petrol depot, two wheeler owners are forced to write down their names, address, phone numbers and purpose of buying petrol. A reporter from this newspaper experienced this today. Asked why this data collection, the pump manager said this is on the orders of the district administration. Additionally, there are notices that petrol will not be dispensed in bottles or gallons. So, if one�s car is stuck on the road in Dibrugarh, the only option is to push the vehicle all the way to the fuel pump.
A government official was asked the reason for this. At first he said there is no such directive. Then, he called back a little later to say that this was to discourage unnecessary plying of bikes on the roads.
The city passed the seventh day of the national lockdown without any major event. No new case has been detected till now, which is good news for the citizens. Last week, a secret survey and testing of half a dozen people in the city and the suburbs were carried out to detect coronavirus. The exercise resulted in all negative tests. These persons had recently come back here from corona-affected places like Delhi, Kerala and Maharashtra.
