Flouting orders, song shoot continues at Qila Mubarak

Ravneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 19

The shooting of a Punjabi song at Qila Mubarak continued today despite directions from the office of the Director, Tourism and Cultural Affairs, to shut down museums and memorials in view of the Covid-19 threat. On the other hand, IELTS and other coaching centres remained opened despite the Deputy Commissioner’s own orders for the suspension of work at educational institutes till any further development.

The administration, which is implementing measures to tackle the spread of Covid-19 by providing 5,700 beds at the Mother and Child Health Care building, super specialty block of the Government Rajindra Hospital and other places, has yet to implement department’s closure orders issued on March 17.

As such, shooting of a Punjabi song as per permission granted by the respective department on March 13 at the iconic Qila Mubarak continued throughout the day on Thursday. The department had given permission for shooting of the song at the historic building for one day from 9 am to 5 pm. The firm, which was given permission, had deposited Rs 50,000 as security.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Kumar Amit said, “The permission has been given by the Tourism Department. If shooting is going on at the Qila, we will stop it tomorrow.”

On the other hand, centres providing coaching for banking and IELTS exams also remained open throughout the day. The DC had issued orders on Wednesday for closing all coaching centres. The Police Department and SDMs had to implement these orders in the district.

Responding on the issue, the SP (City), Varun Sharma, said, “We have discussed the matter at a district-level meeting of all officials. The orders will be implemented by tomorrow afternoon as we are dealing with a lot of things at the same time.”

“We will implement all orders as per direction of the state government,” the SP added.