Rasin out of containment zone, farmers breathe easy

Tribune News Service

Karnal, May 1

Residents of Rasin village, which witnessed the first Covid case of Karnal district, heaved a sigh of relief on Friday after 28 days as it was denotified as containment zone. The village’s 58-year-old farmer, Gian Singh, later died at PGI-Chandigarh. His son was also tested positive, but was cured and discharged from hospital.

Farmers will now be able to take their produce to purchase centres for sale. “We stored our crop at various places after harvesting as we were not allowed to take our produce to the purchase centre due to restrictions in the containment zone. Now, we can sell our produce easily,” said Parveen Sharma, a farmer of the village.

Following surfacing of the first case, Rasin was declared containment zone and surrounding villages of Hasanpur and Upali as buffer zone. The buffer zone villages are also restriction-free. Now, Birchpur, Shekhpura Suhana villages, Sirsi, Ashoka Colony in the city and Karnaili colony, Taraori, are in the containment zone.

Sarpanch Ram Mehar said most of the villagers were farmers and were worried about their crops. “The administration arranged harvesting facilities, but farmers were not allowed to sell their produce. Around 400 acres of wheat has already been harvested, which is yet to be sold,” he said.