Aishwarya Mohanty

The family claimed that permission to travel from Indore to Dahod despite the prohibitory orders was granted by the Additional District Magistrate of Indore, officials said.

The decision was taken after a 54-year-old man from Nagarwada area of the city who volunteered in distributing food packets to those in need tested positive on Sunday.

As majority of them gathered for dinner in the open space within the premises, some flashed their torch from downstairs while a few stood on the balconies. For the first two days, they stayed without electricity.

34-year-old Leela Madi was employed at a small restaurant and was paid Rs 12,000 per month. She used to work as a maid for a 12-hour shift every day. However, she has not been to work in the last two weeks.

As per the official government website maintaining records of mandis across the country, prior to the lockdown around 11-16 tonnes of brinjals arrived at the Vadodara APMCs which reduced to 6-7 tonnes after the lockdown.

With small land-holdings, hilly terrains, water scarcity and parched lands, farming is neither profitable nor a dependable source of income in many villages.

“Many people have agreed to pay me even if I stay home. But many have been insisting that I come to work otherwise they would cut down my salary,” says Chanchal Mackwana, who works as a domestic help.

Until Saturday, over 95 per cent of the migrants reached the border on foot. However on Sunday, all of them were ferried to the border in state transport buses, private jeeps and even trucks, police officials present at the site claimed.

Despite being in the list of essential services released by the Ministry of Home Affairs, meat shop owners say they are faced with restrictions by the local authorities on opening shutters as well as the unavailability of new stock in times of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation released a list of supermarkets and local stores willing to execute doorstep delivery but most of the stores did not answer the calls.

Left stranded by a nationwide lockdown, which has halted all public transport, hundreds of labourers devoid of work have started leaving big cities on foot.

While five corporation areas and Kutch district were already locked down, it was decided on Monday morning that the rural limits of the districts of Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot too will be shut down.

The shutdown is to keep farmers, traders and labourers away from the yards to check the spread of coronavirus, officials said.

While hypermarkets claimed to have adequate stock in case of an emergency-like situation, smaller stores faced a hard time meeting the demands of their customers.

Adivasi farmers in Gujarat are rearing native Kadaknath chicken breeds that give more returns than regular broilers and layers

As a makeshift emergency access for light two-wheelers and construction use, a pathway of loose mud, gravel and stones has been kept open under the watch of the State Reserve Forces (SRP) deployed to ensure that no one ventures on to the under construction bridge.

Clashes broke out in Akhbarpura area of the town on Sunday, leading to arson and rioting in which 13 people were injured. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) was called in on Tuesday.

Paresh Rathwa now wants to take his workshops to schools across Gujarat and other states, a dream that has taken wings thanks to an initiative by a few officers in the district administration who have decided to revive, promote and popularise the “dying” tribal art.

“He generally filled in for others and often worked double shifts or days in a stretch. He was one of the senior most employees there and loved his work. He continued after retirement age as the company insisted,” said Gulabsinh’s son Raju Rathod.