Markets and shops across parts of Baranagar and North Dum Dum, Madhyamgram, Barasat and New Barrackpore will remain shut either on alternate days or for a brief period to break the chain of Covid infections, the state government has decided.
The civic authorities of Baranagar have decided that markets will remain shut on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday apart from Tuesday. All the seven markets in New Barrackpore will remain closed for three days of the week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday till January 31. Markets under the North Dum Dum municipality will remain shut on Wednesday and Fridays.
Shopping malls and markets in Madhyamgram will remain closed between January 13 and 15 while markets in Barasat will remain shut for three days a week for next two weeks.
Shops and establishments dealing with essential items, including medicines, will remain open. “After Calcutta, North 24-Parganas has been witnessing the highest number of Covid cases,” said an official of the health department.
Across all the pockets in the northern suburbs, representatives from the respective municipal bodies held meetings with senior police officers to draw up a plan to enforce complete shutdown of the markets on pre-decided days. Police officers and civic officials will visit the areas with loudhailers to spread the word so that the residents are not caught unaware.
“We will check whether the rate of spread of infection remains unchanged and accordingly decide on extending the closure of markets in Baranagar,” said an official of the municipality, which caters to around 2.5 lakh population.
“We have asked officials to carry out more tests in these parts of the North 24-Parganas district so that we can understand a pattern of the spread,” an official at Swasthya Bhavan said.
