CUTTACK: Despite growing calls for social distancing to check spread of coronavirus, Niali haat in Cuttack district is crawling with buyers. People, traders and farmers of four districts - Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda and Puri - depend on Niali haat which functions bi-weekly - on Sunday and Thursday. The haat has now been relocated to Niali High School playground after the lockdown and necessary steps initiated by marking circles for maintaining social distancing. However, on Thursday as the haat opened, people gave two hoots to the Government call and flocked to make purchases.
Initially, the haat was allowed to function in two slots - from 7 am to 11 am and 3 pm to 6 pm. Later, considering the rush, the timing was restricted to first half of the day, from 6 am to 11 am.What’s more appalling, even the Government’s new directive on mandatory use of masks too was violated. A large gathering, with most of them not even covering their faces, rushed to buy vegetables.
On being alerted about the vulnerable situation, local Sarpanch Prasant Singh tried to make vendors as well as consumers understand the seriousness of the situation and requested them to maintain social distancing but none paid heed forcing him to take help of local police. People started dispersing only after police rushed to the haat and warned people of stern action for flouting social distancing norm.
“We are finding it difficult to implement restrictions as people do not realise seriousness of the situation,” said a senior police official.The situation is similar in more than 50 rural haats of the district, a majority of which function bi-weekly and the rest on weekly basis. While four haats in Salepur, Sauri, Sukarpada and Tangi are operated by Regulated Market Committee (RMC) functioning under Odisha State Agricultural Marketing Board, the rest are managed by local gram panchayats.