The district administration has been appealing to the general public to stay indoors and maintain social distance when they come out for purchasing groceries and vegetables. But the people seem to be keener on breaking the lockdown norms than protecting themselves from the Covid-19.
The Central government has credited the Garib Kalyan package to the Jan Dhan bank accounts of women and the payment process has also commenced.
Therefore, the women without considering the prohibitory orders come along with children to the banks or customer service points in the City to collect the money. They crowd around the customer service points of the banks and wait for long hours to get the money withdrawn.
The banks were closed on Monday due to Mahaveera Jayanti holiday. But the customers opted for the service points and waited in the serpentine queues.
Lead Bank Manager Balappa Kamatagi said, the KYC has been temporarily cancelled. However, the thumb impression should be obtained from the Jan Dhan account holders while clearing the payment. The district has 224 customer service points of various banks while more than three lakh Jan Dhan accounts are active, he said.
The State Bank of India has 184 customer service points in the district. SBI alone has 2,25,851 Jan Dhan accounts. The Central government has credited a total of Rs 11.29 crore to these accounts, he informed. Some people have got Rs 500, some have got Rs 1,000 while some others have got Rs 1,500 in their Jan Dhan accounts. The women were asked to maintain social distance. Customers were also given tokens so that they would not wait before the banks unnecessarily. Still, they crowd around the shops and customer service points, he said.
Deputy Commissioner H R Mahadeva said, the police have been instructing the women to maintain social distance while withdrawing the money. Due to technical reasons, the withdrawal process cannot be changed. If the people did not follow the lockdown norms, stringent legal action would become inevitable, he added.
Meanwhile, the people have also been rushing to the LPG agencies to book the cylinders. The staff in the agencies have also been facing the threat of the disease due to the increasing crowd. A distributor said, the supply of cylinders to the doorsteps has become a tough task as some people have closed the roads. Therefore, the people come to the shops and take the cylinders, the distributor added.
The situation is the same before the ration shops too. People neglect social distancing. The appeal from the officials to keep a distance with others is not yielding any result.
