Punjab imposes statewide night curfew, closure of schools & colleges
Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Jan, 2022 01:19 PM
Chandigarh, Jan 4 (IANS) With the spike in Covid-19 cases, Punjab on Tuesday imposed statewide night curfew daily from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and ordered closure of all educational institutions till January 15.
The educational institutions include the schools, colleges, universities and the coaching institutions. However, these institutions are expected to maintain the academic schedule through online teaching.
However, medical and nursing colleges may continue to function normally.
Only fully vaccinated staff will be allowed to attend the government as well as private offices, working spaces, factories and industries. No service will be provided in government or private offices to persons not wearing proper masks, said a notification by Principal Secretary (Home) Anurag Verma.
All bars, cinemas halls, multiplexes, malls, restaurants, spas, museums, zoos, etc., will be allowed to operate with 50 per cent capacity subject to all staff present being fully vaccinated.
The air-conditioned buses will run with 50 per cent capacity, it added.
Hitting out at Navjot Singh Sidhu, the BJP on Monday said that Punjab Congress chief is creating unwarranted fears in the minds of farmers by suggesting that the Centre had plans to do away with the MSP system.
After literally turning a deaf ear to the farmers’ issues for over a year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, November 19, 2021, in a dramatic move, announced the withdrawal of the three controversial farm laws, which were at the heart of the farmers’ protests across the country.
Earlier, Dhesi sent a letter, signed by over 100 British MPs and Lords, to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the ongoing farmers' protests, asking him to raise this matter with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi when they next liaise.
The Chief Minister told the media here that for more than a year since the Central government had brought three agriculture laws for the benefit of farmers, especially small and marginal ones, unfortunately, some farmer unions had been protesting on the Delhi borders.
While the Centre's announcement to repeal three farm laws is seen as a political decision with eye on forthcoming assembly polls in five states, the BJP claims that it has nothing to do with elections as the party has won many states after laws were passed by the Parliament.
On January 12 this year, the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the three farm laws after scores of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh pitched their tents on various Delhi borders in protest against the three laws.
