J&K wears deserted look as strict curbs enforced

Srinagar/Jammu, April 25

Normal life came to a standstill across J&K on Sunday as policemen strictly enforced curfew to prevent the Covid spread in the Union Territory. Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha had announced a 34-hour curfew from 8 pm on Saturday till 6 am on Monday.

Security forces put barricades on roads at many places and were also seen patrolling localities in the twin capitals as well as in other district headquarters to ensure no violation, officials said. Essential and emergency services were being allowed to move.

Police vehicles, fitted with public address system, went around localities announcing the imposition of strict restrictions for combating the virus spread on Saturday night. Markets wore a deserted look.

Meanwhile, 2,381 new cases and 21 deaths in the past 24 hours took total cases to 1,60,755 and deaths to 2,147.

An order issued on Saturday night by Member secretary, State Executive Committee, Simrandeep Singh said the scheduled marriages up to permissible gathering norms would be exempted subject to production of wedding cards and identity cards.

The government had earlier permitted gathering of 50 persons in indoor functions and 100 outdoors besides 20 for funerals. The SEC also ordered the closure of technical training institutions falling under the department of skill development or technical education for on-campus in-person education till May 15 and said online education would be the mode of teaching.

The government had already closed down all educational institutions including universities, colleges and schools till May 15. — PTI

Omar re-posts distress calls

• Ex-CM Omar Abdullah, who has 3.2 million Twitter followers, has started amplifying distress and SOS messages from Covid patients
• “I want to help people because I know what’s it like to have a loved one in hospital fighting Covid,” he said before re-posting SOS messages from across India

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