About 8 containment zones declared in South Dinajpur

BALURGHAT: South Dinajpur district administration has announced six broad-based containment zones on Saturday afternoon and two micro-containment zones on Sunday to fight the second wave of pandemic.

District Magistrate Ayesha Rani issued two separate notifications on Saturday and Sunday, announcing the broad-based and micro-containment zones respectively.

As per the notifications, the restrictions in the broad-based containment zones, including Tapan block's Rampara-Chechra, Hajratpur, Tapan-Chandipur, Gurail, Balurghat municipality's ward no 7 and Balurghat block's Danga, will be applicable till July 9. The restrictions in the micro-containment zones, including Tapan's Hajratpur (another part) and Balurghat block's Bolla, will be effective from June 27 to July 10 due to the spike in Covid cases in recent times.

Sources said the law-enforcers are being directed to control the movement of the public in and around the areas of the containment zones. Barricades will be put in place if people in the vicinity are not staying inside.

"We will be forced to barricade the containment zones if people are seen coming out of their houses. We have requested them to stay indoors unless there is any emergency. Legal action will be taken if anybody is found flouting the norms," said a police officer.

Local civic body has also urged people to stay indoors through a public address system. Meanwhile, two broad-based containment zones from Gangarampur civic body were declared by the concerned administration from June 24 to July 7 following the increase in Covid cases. The number of areas may go up again as the list of containment zones are being revised regularly, it is learnt.

Notably, the state government has asked the districts to prepare a list of containment zones. The focus would be on urban areas from where most cases have been reported, said an official.