Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Mar 16: With the spread of Coronavirus and the measures that the administration is taking for some time now, sanitizing, disinfecting and keeping a check on the overloading in the public transport of the city seems to be missing.
Due to the close contact in the buses, there are maximum chances of the spread of the virus if any person having caught the infection boards the bus.
However, the administration, including the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has not taken any practical step with regard to disinfecting public transport. But these steps are said to be in the offing.
The locals said that disinfecting as well as sanitizing is not really going to help in keeping a check on the infection as the public transport is too overcrowded and paves a way for the infection to spread.
“You have got people standing just close to you while you travel on the bus, how is sanitizing going to help us; the only way is to ban overloading in the buses till the scare fades away,” said Bashir Ahmad, a commuter.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Government has issued clear-cut directions asking people to avoid the public transport amid coronavirus scare.
The healthcare experts are also of the same opinion, saying that, while no one knows who is infected and who is not, travel in public transport is always going to be risky-especially in the times when covid-19 cases are being reported.
“It is better to take precautions; however, the travel in public transport currently is full of risk; while we are recommending that the people should avoid the travel in public transport, the administration should also take a few steps in this regard,” a doctor said.
With regard to officially banning the overloading of buses in the city, the administration seems not to have decided anything on that.
An official in the SMC told this reporter that they have written to the RTO as well as the SSP Traffic to keep a check on the overloading in the buses in order to make the steps taken by the SMC effective. “But, we did not get any response from them so far,” he said.
Though, so far, no positive case has surfaced in Kashmir, the SMC has taken a slew of measure to sanitize the places of gathering especially mosques, shopping malls and other places in the city. The administration has also closed down the educational institution in J&K as a measure to keep a check on the spread of the virus.
What also seems to have not got the attention of the administration is Darsgahs functional in almost every locality of the Srinagar City. In these religious institutions, around 200-300 children attend the classes at least for a couple of hours.
With regard to the measures to be taken to disinfect the public transport, SMC Mayor Junaid Mattoo said that the Corporation was coming up with the mechanism to sterilize public transport.
“We are coming up with a mechanism to sterilize/disinfect public transport – starting with buses. Idea is to disinfect a number of buses a day at designated facilities and issue certificates stating date of sterilization. With QAC spraying – the effectiveness will be 20 day,” he tweeted.
He also said that the two sterilization and disinfection units will be set up to disinfect and sterilize public transport – one at Parimpora Bus Stand and another at Pantha Chowk. SMC will do the spray-sterilization – with specialized machines.
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