Markets under Maheshtala municipality area to be shut

Kolkata: All markets under Maheshtala municipality area in South 24-Parganas will remain closed on Monday as a preventive measure to combat the spread of COVID-19 virus.

The district administration along with the respective bazaar associations will carry out sanitisation of the markets .

"All market places in the area will remain closed for the purpose of sanitisation. The shops inside markets will also come under the aegis of the closure. There will however be no restriction in transport movement," said a senior official of Diamond Harbour Police District.

Presently there are around 190 positive cases in Maheshtala municipality area and the number of deaths have been 14.

"The crowding at the markets has been found to be a major contributor to the positive cases. So we have taken this step. Announcements have been made in all market places through out Sunday so that people are aware of the closing of markets," a senior official of Maheshtala municipality said.

Dulal Das, chairman of Maheshtala municipality said that ward 31 has witnessed a spurt in positive cases in recent times. The district administration has decided to impose similar restrictions in markets at regular intervals and carry out sanitisation to stop the spread of the virus.

Interestingly the three places that are in the containment zone in the Maheshtala municipality area are all apartments. C9 and C1 block of the Eden City apartment in ward 31, block number 24,79,86 and 88 of the Greenfield City apartment under ward 14 and Shyama Apartment under ward 9 in Santoshpur Bazar area under the jurisdiction of Rabindra Nagar police station are in the containment list.

Prantik Park 1st lane to Ramkrishna Park, Jagannathpur under Ashuti II gram panchayat in Maheshtala is also in the containment list.