Despite mayor's appeal for Janata curfew, people crowd streets in Nagpur

As people thronged streets in Maharashtra's Nagpur amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea of Janata curfew went for a toss here on Saturday morning.

In order to control further spread of the coronavirus in Nagpur city, Mayor Sandip Joshi had appealed to the public to observe Janata curfew on Saturday and Sunday.

Since no official order or notification was issued on behalf of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) administration regarding this curfew, NMC Commissioner Radhakrishnan B tweeted about observing voluntary lockdown.

"Getting lot of queries on call of janta curfew on weekends. There is no official notification or order issued by NMC. It's completely voluntary one. The need of the hour is avoiding unnecessary movements outside. Masks and maintaining social distancing r key #stayhome stay safe," he said.

However, the streets in the city remained crowded as people continued their routine activities here and the roads witnessed heavy vehicular movements.

"We were confused whether there was curfew or not. Mayor had appealed but the NMC Commissioner had said that no such order is there. Shops are closed at some places and it looks like curfew," said Ankit Dubey, a local resident.

( With inputs from ANI )