At a time when the authorities are encouraging citizens to wear masks outdoors with the Indian Council of Medical Research stating that irresponsible people not wearing masks or maintaining social distancing are causing Covid-19 to spread, a commendable initiative of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) fizzled out only within a few weeks.
Earlier this month on August 6, the corporation took the initiative in association with VP Industries and installed a face mask vending machine in its premises for the citizens.
From this vending machine, anyone could get a face mask by just putting a Rs five coin into the machine which was among the most affordable masks in the city. However, the corporation stopped refilling the machine with the face masks within a few days after the installation of the machine.
The municipal commissioner had stated at that time that the machine was installed in MCD as an experiment to know whether the public will use these masks and if the corporation would receive positive feedback, such more face mask vending machines will be installed in the city too for easier and affordable access to masks. However, the corporation could not even keep the single face mask vending machine running properly in its own campus.
In the last few days, several people approached the machine for the face masks but returned disappointed as no mask was available. Many believe that the corporation should correct this careless attitude towards the initiative because it has the potential to help a lot of people during the pandemic.
However, a few also opined that the installation of a vending machine in association with a private company in the corporation was just a gimmick for the publicity of both the parties.
Meanwhile, when the municipal commissioner was asked about the irregularity in refilling the masks in the vending machine, he stated that the masks are available in the machine.
However, when this correspondent checked machine, it was found to be empty. Besides this, he also informed that corporation is currently not planning to install any more such face mask vending machines in the city.