Since the primary Covid-19 case was reported in Gujarat in March 2020 round Holi, adopted by lockdown and imposition of the Epidemic Disease Act, public gatherings and celebrations had been banned, the most recent being the cancellation of the annual worldwide kite competition and restrictions on Uttarayan celebrations. For the primary time, there was no garba for Navratri and Diwali that ushers within the Gujarati new yr was muted.
However, the unlock interval was marked by political rallies and inauguration of a number of tourism associated initiatives within the state the place leaders exhorted folks to go to these websites.
The state noticed by-elections to eight meeting seats in November, whereas native physique polls that had been scheduled in December had been delay due to the pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, BJP chief CR Paatil and different ministers have been addressing public conferences.
On October 30, Modi spent an evening at Kevadia and inaugurated 17 initiatives that shall be part of the Kevadia tourism circuit, housing the Statue of Unity — the tallest statue on the earth, six days after he nearly inaugurated the ropeway at Girnar, claimed to be the “longest in the world”, coinciding with Dussehra that marked the top of Navratri.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) launched water sports activities on the Sabarmati River Front on New Year’s Day that may have marked the fruits of the Kankaria Carnival in the course of the delivery anniversary of late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that coincides with Christmas.
Referring to it as “New year gift”, Ahmedabad municipal commissioner Mukesh Kumar tweeted how the water sports activities — jet ski, excessive velocity boats, paddle boats and zorbing — introduced in 2,350 guests within the first week.
Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL) basic supervisor Dipak Patel says, “While a few water activities resumed, some new activities were added at the riverfront on January 1. More will be added soon.”
Before saying the cancellation of the Kankaria Carnival, mayor Bijal Patel had mentioned, “The country, the state and the city is going through a tough time with the coronavirus. As per the Central government’s guidelines, gathering of people at one place beyond a certain limit is not allowed. Keeping this in mind, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has decided that the Kankaria Carnival this year would not be organised.”
The carnival with an annual price range of Rs 5 to 10 crore consists of a number of cultural, artwork and social actions turning Kankaria lake into a preferred hub with footfall in lakhs.
Since the Statue of Unity was inaugurated in October 2018, the state authorities has labored to deliver Kevadia on the world tourism map. The circuit now has 35 vacationer points of interest, of which the Valley of Flowers, Vishwa Van, Jungle Safari, Cactus Garden, Butterfly Garden, Ekta Nursery, Tent City, Khalvani Eco-tourism, Zarwani Eco-tourism, Nauka Vihar and River Rafting, situated across the periphery of the statue and the Narmada Dam, had been already open when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 17 extra initiatives on October 31.
After the positioning reopened in September 2020, the variety of guests was capped at 2,500 per day to the Statue of Unity guests gallery. This cap, nevertheless, didn’t apply to the campus. On all days, together with Diwali holidays, Kevadia remained packed — from lodge rooms to vacationer points of interest and even the tent metropolis. Ahead of the brand new yr, the tickets had been elevated to five,500 tickets per day, and now the restrict is as much as 12,000.
While inaugurating the Girnar ropeway, Modi had mentioned how “45 lakh people had visited” the Statue of Unity earlier than Covid-19 struck. Around 1.8 lakh folks have already used the Girnar ropeway service to go to Ambaji temple on Mount Ginar close to Junagadh metropolis since its inauguration, in line with Deepak Kaplish, western area head of Usha Breco Limited (UBL), the personal agency that has put in the ropeway and in addition operates it.
“An average of 2,700 tourists use our service per day with numbers going up during the weekends. Once, during festive season, we had to seek help of police after tourists formed around a kilometre long queue outside our base station,” Kaplish added.
A senior official in Kevadia, holding cost of a vacationer part, mentioned, “We had a full house for the new year weekend. It turned into a bit of a crowd but we were able to ensure social distancing… In fact, weekends are extremely busy now. We have ensured that we have enough staff strength to manage the sanitisation and cleanliness. It is good to see activity again.”
Manager of a three-star lodge in Kevadia mentioned, “The tourism industry suffered huge losses with agents and businesses going almost to the extent of starvation. I don’t think it would be right to call the opening up a careless move. All the establishments have been given strict advisories on Covid-19 protocol. It is here to stay and we need to get on with business. How do we sustain ourselves if tourists don’t come in? Diwali and New Year’s are the main days for tourism businesses and we are glad the government considered our pleas.”
A co-owner of one other price range lodging in Kevadia mentioned, “It is true that the businesses never considered Covid-19 a big threat to tourists coming to Kevadia simply because it is a nature spot. It has a healing effect. We are prepared to handle the sanitisation and hygiene part. The increase in footfalls has only been gradual and it is needed… It is important to be practical. Tourism spots such as Kevadia are not like malls in cities. There is a lot of scope to follow the guidelines and the administration has done a fantastic job. No one can say that opening SoU site has has made any difference to the district’s status on the Covid-19 map.”
According to police, choice of the variety of vacationers to be allowed at a time was the discretion of the SoU administration however the police division has been strictly implementing the Covid-19 pointers. “We crack down on violations. While the SoU complex is guarded by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the surrounding area is the responsibility of the district police. The crowd has been huge. Access to the SoU complex is restricted so only those with valid tickets can drive through,” mentioned Vani Doodhat, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kevadia Colony.
The restrained festivals however, the state noticed a spike in Covid-19 circumstances quickly after Diwali with the every day numbers crossing 1,200, and the federal government clamped an evening curfew on the cities of Ahmedabad , Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara. The circumstances are actually all the way down to a median of 650 a day even because the evening curfew continues with an hour’s rest.
Ruling social gathering has an edge: Political rallies go on amid ban on gatherings, not of all events
Soon after his appointment as Gujarat BJP president in July 2020, CR Paatil toured the state, along with his roadshows in Saurashtra and South Gujarat recording big turnouts, particularly on seats that had been going to by-elections in November. The Congress in Valsad protested as BJP put out photographs of a packed auditorium in Pardi city in August however no motion was taken.
In the identical month, a rally to rejoice the appointment of Hardik Patel as Congress working president was not allowed by the Surat police citing how “religious and social gatherings” continued to be prohibited below Covid protocol. After Paatil’s roadshows in Talala and Rajkot, native Congress leaders demanded police take motion in opposition to the organisers of the occasion however no motion was taken.
Paatil had drawn massive crowds in Talala, Somnath, Junagadh, Khodaldham and in Rajkot, however at a press convention in Rajkot on August 20 , the BJP president claimed he had not violated state authorities’s ban on public gathering because of Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have not organised any rally… If some president comes visiting and three persons are driving in his car and 100 other car joins his convoy with just three people in each of them, it can’t be called a julus (procession) or rally. It doesn’t fall under the definition of a rally as only three people are in a car, they have their mask on and they don’t assemble in a group,” he had mentioned.
The gathering for an handle by BJP president CR Paatil at Pardi auditorium corridor in Valsad in August. (Express picture)
In December 2020, in an obvious counter to the farmer protests in Delhi, the state BJP organised 10 Kisan Sammelans, every attended by at the very least 400-500 farmers. Farmers had been supplied lunch additionally on the venues. This got here barely every week after dozens of Congress leaders had been detained by police as they hit the street in the course of the nation-wide bandh name given on December 8 by farmer unions protesting in Delhi.
Days earlier than Diwali, on November 12, Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a sarpanch sammelan at Dhordo, the venue of the annual Rann Utsav, the identical day when the desert carnival started. Around a month later, on December 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Dhordo to put the inspiration stone of a hybrid renewable power park, and addressed a public assembly there.
With the native physique elections rescheduled to February this yr, Chief Minister Rupani has been touring the state launching numerous initiatives, together with what the federal government calls the second part of Kisan Suryodaya Yojana (KSY) in numerous districts, apart from housing and different agriculture initiatives. KSY was orginally launched by PM Modi on October 24 final yr.
On the opposite hand, chief of the Opposition, Paresh Dhanani, was detained by police when he sat on dharna alone on the campus of Shantaba Medical College and General Hospital in his dwelling city Amreli in July to demand a laboratory within the district for Covid-19 testing. He was detained once more whereas he rode a scooter in Amreli, soliciting public assist for the nationwide bandh on December 8.
“Government detains and jails opposition leaders even as goondas roam freely… If five people gather on a terrace, government takes action against them saying the coronavirus can’t infect them. But the same Covid-19 is not a concern when BJP gathers hundreds for campaigning. Are Covid-19 and Kamal (lotus – election symbol of BJP) cousins who won’t harm each other? This is nothing but misuse of state machinery and muzzling the voice of Opposition,” Dhanani mentioned.
Besides Dhanani, dozens of Congress leaders, together with Pal Ambaliya, convenor of the farmers’ cell of state Congress had been arrested on December 8 in the course of the bandh. Congress held two indoor conferences of its staff in Rajkot as a part of its preparations for the civic physique polls. Its native leaders additionally held dharna at Sardar Chowk on Race Course Ring Road on January 7 to protest the arrest of relations of Urvashiba Jadeja, one of many former Congress corporators of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation, in an alleged case of land grabbing.
However, greater than 4 dozen Congress staff had been detained by police from Sardar Chowk for staging a dharna with out police permission at the same time as an software filed by Congress chief Mahesh Rajput with police commissioner’s workplace searching for permission to stage dharna was pending.
GOVERNMENT SPEAK: Jawahar Chavda, State Minister for tourism
Isn’t the federal government exhibiting double requirements when it restricts celebration of festivals and encourages footfalls on the new tourism websites?
The authorities is not asking folks to stay indoors because of Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, we’re encouraging native tourism as inter-state and worldwide vacationers, which type bulk of vacationer footfalls within the state, are usually not travelling in any respect. Livelihood of lots of people in Gujarat rely completely on tourism exercise and the Covid-19 pandemic has hit this sector the toughest. As folks from outdoors are usually not turning up, our technique is to encourage native tourism in order that the tourism business is kickstarted and individuals who rely upon it earn one thing.
What about limiting guests on the tourism websites?
There isn’t any cap on folks utilizing the Girnar ropeway however some slab is there on the variety of entry tickets issued on the Statue of Unity (SoU)… I don’t have these particulars. SoU is managed by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL), which doesn’t come below my ministry. Our function is to create tourism services, promote them and let others run them.
Rajiv Gupta
Additional Chief Secretary(Forest & Environment Dept), MD SSNNL and Officer on Special Duty for Covid19 for Ahmedabad, the place evening curfew is in place
Kevadia is doing very nicely. The vacationer inflow has elevated exponentially. Statue of Unity, Jungle Safari, Children Nutrition Park and Cactus Garden are attracting 1000’s of tourists on daily basis. On weekends, the whole variety of guests exceeds 20,000. We are guaranteeing all Covid protocols and as well as, commonly testing 1000’s of employees members manning these services. On the New Year’s Eve, greater than 1,500 folks stayed right here in the course of the evening, which is a sign that individuals are coming for longer holidays. The Orchidarium and Ekta natural Hand cleaning soap making models are new points of interest added to Ekta Nursery.