WARANGAL: The lockdown norms, it appears, don’t apply to the people’s representatives. At least that is what one gathers from the behaviour of the political leaders, especially the MLAs, who are flouting the rules, putting the people at the grave danger of contracting the deadly Coronavirus.
While the State government, in a major relief to the farmers, has announced the decision to open paddy procurement centres in the villages to prevent the spread of virus, the MLAs are breaking the lockdown rules during their inauguration, defeating the very purpose of setting up such centres.
The people’s representatives are not only turning up for the ceremonies with a large number of their followers, but also failing to ensure the social distancing to be maintained during the events.
Such incidents were witnessed in Warangal Rural and Mahabubabad districts, where Wardhannapet MLA Aroori Ramesh and his Mahabubabad counterpart Banoth Shankar Naik inaugurated procurement centres while a number of their followers and party workers jostled for space and attention.
Ironically, the same MLAs advised the villagers maintain social distancing to save themselves from Coronavirus. For the record, as many as 834 paddy procurement centres were set up across the six districts of erstwhile Warangal district to procure more than 10 lakh tonnes of paddy.
Meanwhile, several instances of local political leaders posing for photos with group of people, which include their followers, while distributing the essential provisions and food to the need across the erstwhile Warangal district drew flak from many.
Two more positive cases in Nalgonda
NALGONDA: Giving no respite to the district, two more persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Nalgonda town on Sunday. With this, the total number of cases reached 15. Meanwhile, one person who had been kept in an isolation centre in the district for the past few days died of some health issues on Sunday. According to sources, though his samples were sent for testing, it returned negative on Sunday