It is lottery time for 642 bidders of 31 Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) shops at the Rayagada collectorate.
While the Collector Saroj Mishra, ADM Sarat Panda and Excise Superintendent Prasanna Kumar Nayak were busy in conducting the lottery, which started at 10.30 am, thousands of people including 505 bidders and their associates loitered in front and inside the premises of the collectorate flouting all Covid-19 norms. This is with full knowledge of the district administration when the 10 days' special drive for enforcement of Covid safety regulations was going on from April 7th to 16th with a direction from the Director General of Police(DGP). Many bidders and their companions came from neighbouring States like Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. They were seen sitting close to one another in just 100 chairs arranged by the officials without social distancing and without masks.
Gopa Ranjan Boxipatra, a young scribe had tweeted to the Chief Minister, Health Minister, Chief Secretary, Health Secretary, Collector, SP, Excise department that social distancing was not maintained in front of the Collectorate Rayagada during the lottery time for IMFL shops. Though the district administration claimed the completion of bidding process as smooth and fruitful by collecting a revenue of Rs 6.42 crore, the scenario outside the hall, where the lottery was going on, was a chaos.
Rayagada shows an increasing trend of Covid-19 upsurge. The district administration has sealed two educational institutions namely Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology(GIET), Gunupur and Rayagada Women’s College for the next three days. When this correspondent interacted with B Sahu, Principal of Utkala Gourav Madhusudan Institute of Technology(UGMIT), a premiere Government diploma engineering school in Rayagada, he seemed panicky to send his students to a virtual programme of book release by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at DRDA conference hall.
The Covid upsurge is mainly in urban centres of Rayagada and Gunupur. The commuters in daily markets move scot free without adhering to Covid norms.