Mumbai, May 2 (IANS) Given the huge geographical areas that make up the districts in Maharashtra, an activist on Saturday called for a ‘rationale rethink’ on the lockdown imposed in 30 districts in the state classified as 14 in Red Zone and 16 in Orange Zone.
In a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, lawyer-activist Vinod Tiwari has said that as per Lockdown 3.0, of the 733 districts, 130 are classified as Red Zones and 284 as Orange Zones, besides 319 – including 6 in Maharashtra – as Green Zones.
In Nagpur district, the Covid-19 cases are concentrated only in a particular locality of Nagpur city, but the entire district has been shunted to the Red Zone. Ditto is the case with Yavatmal, Aurangabad, Akola, Jalgaon, Satara, where Covid-19 cases are limited to a very tiny geographical area, he pointed out.
“Under such circumstances, it will be prudent if the affected areas in the Red and Orange Zones are clearly demarcated and strictly locked down – as in Islampur (Sangli) or other hotspots – to prevent the spread of coronavirus. All other areas can be permitted to function as usual but with full precautions like physical distancing, wearing masks, sanitizers, no crowding, etc,” Tiwari urged Thackeray.
“Some districts in Maharashtra are more than 200 kms from one end to the other, entailing a journey of at least 4-6 hours depending on the terrain and road conditions. In contrast, there are some states like Goa, Sikkim whose areas are smaller than many Maharashtra districts,” Tiwari told IANS.
Moreover, the semi-urban or rural areas are almost bereft of the Covid-19 assault which is restricted mostly to urban centres like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, which also have international airports that would require expert guidance before they are opened for flights, he added.
This, according to Tiwari, would help to immediately kickstart the economy which is now idling since March 15, enable people to get or retain jobs and reduce the clamour among migrants to rush to their homes.
“Why lock down everybody in the district where only a few people in one corner are infected…?” he asked.
As per the Centre’s latest classification, out of Uttar Pradesh’s 75 districts, 19 are in the Red Zone and 36 in the Orange Zone, the highest, followed by Maharashtra.
Tiwari pointed that this figure could be misleading as Uttar Pradesh with a population of 20 crore spans an area of 2.43 lakh sq kms divided into 75 districts of average 3,250 sq kms each.
Against this, with a population of around 12 crore, Maharashtra’s area is 3.07 lakh sq kms cast into just 36 districts, roughly measuring around 8,500 sq kms, though Mumbai City district measures barely 68 sq kms.
Similarly, he pointed out that the area of districts in states like Haryana, Punjab, Tripura, Jharkhand, or all the Union Territories is smaller than many districts in Maharashtra.
Drawing global comparisons, he said that Maharashtra’s biggest district Ahmednagar covers an area of around 17,500 sq kms – a whopping 24 times bigger than Singapore – which has an area of around 750 sq kms having 5 tiny districts averaging to around 150 sq kms each!
There are many countries in the world which have a lesser area than many of the smaller districts in Maharashtra – both in terms of geographical area and the population – he said.
When Telangana state was formed in 2014, it had only 10 districts, which are now spliced into 33 manageable districts, as per the powers vested with the state government.
He opined that the state could take a cue from Telangana on the issue of smaller districts which can be a big help in such mega-disasters like the Covid-19 pandemic.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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