Lockdown in Bihar: A 10 Day Restricted Movement Mission.

Introduction

Due to heavy surge of Coronavirus spread, Bihar Government decided to impose a Partial Lockdown in Bihar from Wednesday 5th May 2021 till 15th May 2021. It was announced by Ministry of Bihar. The decision was taken after the meeting which was held on the evening of Tuesday, 4th May 2021, with all ministers and staffs.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar tweeted “ after discussing with all my associates, ministers and responsible staffs, government decided to have a lockdown in Bihar till 15th May with some major guidelines. Various other activities and management systems have also been taken care of under these guidelines.”

Lockdown in Bihar

Lockdown in Bihar have been imposed since Tuesday with major guidelines to be followed and taken care of. On Thursday, 6th May 2021, the Home Ministry of Bihar did some nominal changes giving some more exemptions in the guidelines given on Tuesday.

The High Court of Patna, on Monday 3rd May 2021 urged the government to “either impose Lockdown in Bihar or will the court be taking the actions”. With the bench discussion of court, in presence of justices Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Mohit Kumar Jha, the court finalised it’s statement mentioned above. The Indian Medical Association, IMA also had previously asked the government for imposing Lockdown in Bihar and thanked MR. CM for the same.

Even the opposition parties BJP and others have supported this move of CM and appreciated him with words “at least one rule is compiled at its earliest”.

Guidelines to Follow

The guidelines which are to be followed by people during lockdown in Bihar are:

1) Proper Functioning of Hotels and Non Governmental Offices:

• All the Non Governmental Offices and Hotels shall be functioning with a restriction of providing their guests with foods and essentials in their room itself. Also all the officials of Agricultural and allied Sectors, Environment & Ecolife Department, Forest Reserves and Wildlife Protection Vehicles have also been exempted from  rules of lockdown in Bihar.
• Other than them, District Administrative Department, Administrative Secretary and Head of Departments will work with minimum employees as well.

2) Day to Day Essentials:

• We all know fruits, vegetables and food items are essential part of livelihood. So all the shops of Fruits, Vegetables, Dairy Products, Meat & Fish Poultry shall remain opened for 4 hrs from 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM.
• Rather, Medical shops, Petrol Pumps, and Path labs shall also be exempted from lockdown rules in Bihar.

3) Functions and Travelling:

• Matrimonial Functions and Funerals is also exempted from lockdown rules. A proper and prior information shall be provided to the municipality with not more than 50 people.
• Public transportation and other automobile vehicles shall reduce their passengers to 50%. They can take passengers to Railway and Bus station as well but with limited access.
• The passengers who are travelling far distance can use public transport and their tickets will be working as pass for them.
• All those who will travel from one state to other with their own vehicle shall get a pass from municipality or DC office.

4) Schools, Colleges and Institutions:

• All the school, colleges and educational institutions have been shut down till further notice of the boards and all of them are continuing their classes online.
• Medical colleges and hospitals associated with them have been remained opened because at this point of time we need doctors, nurses and ward boys to help.
• All the exams of primary and higher educations have been suspended till further notice and students of 10th standard are been promoted with their internal grades and marks.

Bihar and Lockdown Situations

Bihar is a state of 13 Cr. Population ranking 3rd highest populated states of India. Approximately 78% of population of Bihar are daily waged workers who work to fill their stomach. This Covid 19 pandemic not only snatched their jobs but also their living and livelihood. Many of them are working in metro cities, earning and filling their stomach on daily wages.

Lockdown and no jobs had left them with no option other than coming back to their home places where at least they can get 1 meal a day. In the month of march, it was reported than around 8 Lakh workers came back to Bihar via trains and buses because they had to leave their jobs and livelihood. The IMA reported that it would bring a blast of virus to the state and requested to impose lockdown for a while to make things stable.

On April 15th 2021, the Ministry of Bihar had meetings and discussion with all their staffs and on May 4th 2021, Bihar government imposed a partial lockdown in Bihar in order to hold and stop the chain of spread of Coronavirus till 15th May 2021.

Conclusion

Imposing Lockdown is the last solution any government, whether State or Central, is taking to stop the spread and cabin of Coronavirus disease. Previously, we at least knew the symptoms of Coronavirus but now it’s next to impossible to understand whether the one sitting beside us is a Covid patient or not. In such dilemmatic situation, Bihar government took right decision of imposing Lockdown in Bihar till 15th May and have a overview on the conditions.

Also Read: Corona Vaccines and its impact on the same.

Talk to Author: Nikhil Nivedan Vatsa.