Coronavirus: Muted celebrations mark Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, Navreh in Pune; police get 20,000 grievances due to lockdown

The homes where the gudi was seen used minimal material, with sugar candy strings and leaves of mango trees missing. “Since we are all living through very challenging times, my family decided not to prepare any special delicacies this year,” said Pavan Pansare, a resident of Pimpri.

Restrictions imposed on going outside, in effect for nearly 10 days, left many families with only a handful items to decorate the gudi. “We usually purchase new silk clothes, mango leaves and sugar candy strings from the market — all of which are used at the time of erecting the gudi. But, this time, we erected a plain gudi,” said Neha Bhosale, a home-maker.

South Indian communities from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, living in Pune, also skipped any major celebrations to mark Ugadi.

Common sights of garlands made of mango leaves adorning entrance doors and rangolis drawn outside homes did not feature in the day’s new year celebrations. Community members said no special pujas or temple visits were possible this year.

“I was supposed to return to my hometown in Tamil Nadu for Ugadi, but the plans had to be dropped. So, there are no celebrations this year,” said Kartik V.

The Marathi new year is also considered an auspicious day for buying new assets and every year, automobile dealers do brisk business on this day. This year, however, the shops remained closed on Gudi Padwa due to the lockdowns announced by the government to arrest the spread of Covid-19.

Apart from losing business on this important day, automotive dealers are also worried about the unsold BS-IV (Bharat Stage IV) engine vehicles. Pune RTO officials said they have not registered a single new vehicle on Wednesday as all the dealers’ shops remain shuttered due to the lockdown.

Neeraj Kudale, managing director of Ace Kudale Cars, said although sales had picked up in the first week of March, since the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in the city, sales have plunged and then come to a complete halt with the lockdown.

“There is no sale happening at the moment. Everything has stopped,” said Kudale. He said the worry for many dealers – apart from loss of business -is the unsold BS-IV stock.

Kudale said the dealers were hopeful about a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court, which is likely to hear a plea for extension of the deadline on March 27.

“There must be over a 1,000 unsold BS-IV two-wheelers and scores of four-wheelers with the dealers. There are also premium cars of the BS-IV make which are unsold. The only way out for us is if the Supreme Court extends the deadline for the sale of BS-IV vehicles. The Fedearation of Automobile Dealers’ has approached the apex court and we are hoping to see some relief on March 27,” said Kudale.

Pune police get 20,000 grievances on WhatsApp, Twitter and email pertaining to restrictions

‘WHATSAPP Helplines’ launched by Pune City Police to listen to the grievances of residents pertaining to restrictions put on their movement and vehicular traffic under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) are getting inundated with requests for special concessions.

A press release issued by the police Wednesday said the WhatsApp helplines received as many as 17,749 requests so far after they were launched on March 23, soon after the Pune City Police announced a ban on vehicular movement to desist residents from venturing outside their houses and violate ‘social distancing regime’ that’s being seen as the key to stop the fast spread of coronavirus pandemic.

To use the facility, residents have to save one of the four numbers (9145003100, 8975283100, 9168003100, 8975953100) and send a message using the app. These could be queries, doubts, concerns about the restrictions and their nature or requests for a concession — either one time or, in case of those involved in essential services, a longer duration one — to travel in the city.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Bachchan Singh, of the total 17,749 grievances/queries received until now, 7,615 were of urgent nature. Besides, Pune City Police has also received at least 5,000 request messages on its Twitter handle and 233 more on email. Police have replied to 5,683 requests.

At least 50 per cent of the requests/grievances came from persons who needed to travel for medical reasons, police said. “For instance, cancer, diabetes and alzheimer’s patients needing treatment or those suffering from kidney ailments needing dialysis,” said DCP Singh.

Twenty per cent came from hospital staff such as doctors, nurses and assistants in pathological labs who needed permission to travel to their work and back home. Five per cent requests came from students staying in hostels who were facing food-related issues and another five per cent concerned requests to move elderly, young children or women from one place to another.

“As the number of calls have increased, the grievance cell is working out of Seva Cell premises and includes three control room staff and three Sevas Cell staffers. Police Inspector Shilpa Chavan and ACP Deshmukh are co-ordinating the efforts to provide relief on priority basis… Since we are getting numerous requests, we are following a certain priority protocol. So, those who are involved in essential services or emergency services such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists, are being given the first priority to ensure their work is not affected. The second priority would be the persons who need medical assistance. This could be the patient herself or an aide who will take the patient to the medical facility,” said Singh.

Among those who benefited from the helpline was a working young woman who was staying alone, away from home as all her flatmates had left. “She was feeling nervous and fearful. After she sought our assistance using our helpline, we provided her guidance and after discussing with her father over phone, shifted her to a relative’s place,” said Singh.

In another instance, a couple who had recently shifted to Pune from Bengaluru was left with no household necessities as their luggage was stuck with the transport firm. “We contacted the transport company and ensured that the couple’s household luggage reached them,” said a press release.

“The requests are being carefully reviewed so that the purpose of implementation of section 144 is not defeated (by approving large numbers of requests). We are following the guidelines issued by district collector as well as Union Ministry of Home Affairs,” the press release stated.

The flow of requests has caused the police to expand the helpline from two numbers to now four. The police are now planning to approach a web developer to automate the system of receiving and sorting out the requests.
According to officials, those who are seeking concessions from vehicular restrictions should also send some evidence to prove that their case is genuine.