Written by Dipankar Ghose
| Basirhat, Kamarhati (wb) |
Updated: April 18, 2021 7:36:35 am
In sales space after sales space, a scarcity of social distancing, no temperature checks, incomplete masks compliance, and barely any seriousness on compliance. That was the scene as West Bengal voted on Saturday.
If the Assembly polls in Bihar held in October 2020 have been in the midst of a earlier wave of the pandemic, throughout cubicles, The Sunday Express discovered that the measures in place on Saturday have been weaker.
At 9.30 am at Sagar Dutt High School sales space in Kamarhati, a Kolkata suburb, the road had thinned slightly since morning, however was additionally the results of, as in Bihar, an elevated variety of cubicles as a part of Covid-19 precautions. But that appeared to be the one factor working. There was a state police official on the gate, and a few paramilitary personnel milling round. Multiple voters walked by way of the gate, masks of their arms.
The police constable stopped and checked their identification playing cards, however stated nothing concerning the masks they carried of their arms as a substitute of round their noses. Asked what his transient was, the constable stated, “My job is to check voters and point them to the booth. I don’t ask about masks.”
Unlike Bihar, there was no desk on the entrance, and there was no signal of any temperature test. The queue had about 15, all of them in masks. But not less than 5 had slipped them round their chins, and pulled them up as soon as they went in. There was some factor of distancing, however this was natural, and underneath no instruction.
There have been no chalk markers on the ground to point correct distancing. Next to the doorway have been two benches, the place a gaggle of ladies waited for relations to return out of the sales space. One voter stated, “We had a mask on, and just inside they offered some plastic gloves. But I said I didn’t want, and they didn’t insist. Some officials inside are not wearing masks either.”
Covid protocols flouted at fifth section of voting in West Bengal. (Express Photo by Shashi Ghosh)
Thirty kilometers away in Barasat, the issue was not simply the queues on the sales space subsequent to the depot. Like in a number of cubicles, employees of various political events had arrange stalls simply exterior the sales space. As folks approached the voting centre, they first went to those desks and checked their names towards the voters’ record out there with the social gathering employees. Some voters wore masks, however not one of many social gathering employees had masks on.
One BJP employee, sitting with six others, stated, “I wore mask in the morning, but it is now so hot that I took it off. What is the point?”
Fifty metres away in a equally packed TMC sales space the temper was buoyant. The social gathering employees consider they’re doing nicely, however the reply to lack of masks remained the identical. “How long can we wear one? We have to be here through the day. But we ask voters if they have a mask. If not, we give them one,” a TMC employee stated.
Another 20 km away, exterior a polling sales space in Niharpur underneath Bisarhat constituency, there was once more no desk on the entry, no temperature checks, no distancing, and no directions to take action both exterior the sales space. It was 2 pm, and many citizens stood consistent with no masks. This is as a result of the message has gone out to the village that officers inside have masks they may give. The one policeman on the gate checked solely identification and stated nothing concerning the absence of masks.
