Hardships caused by hasty curfew

With mounting pressure from religious leaders, coalition party leaders, opposition party leaders, doctors and trade unions of the health sector itself, and after much vacillation, the government was compelled to announce the pandemic lockdown curfew on Friday, so brusquely; leaving just a few hours for the public to buy and store essential food stocks to last for two weeks.

Whenever new laws are introduced policemen are bound to enforce them. From that point of view, People (deemed to be violators of the law), being subject to checking, questioning, arrest, or directing for court action, have no choice but to give in to them, when caught on the way during the period of such surveillance.

From another angle, lawmakers forget or ignore the practical difficulties that the public have to suffer from such quick decisions.

Some people who are alert about emergency messages got the announcement of the last lockdown immediately; but what about those who were travelling long distances, or working in outstations and returned home late in the evening, or those who watched news late in the evening. They heard the news late, and there was hardly enough time to do the shopping before the deadline.

The inevitable consequence was the public being forced to panic buying of essential food stuffs in crowded groceries and supermarkets as late as 10 pm, and as shown on TV news, as late as midnight. There were long queues at filling stations too.

Policemen performed their duties, forcing the shopkeepers to close the doors and reprimanding the late shoppers for violating the curfew. But how could those late customers go home empty handed, when they are expected to remain indoors for two weeks ahead. Was it a violation of law for them to be late because the shops were crowded? On the other hand, how could shopkeepers close the doors when there were such big crowds waiting to buy something for their families for a period of two weeks?

The vegetable and fruit sellers were the other group to suffer a great loss due to this curfew. What about the remaining large stocks of vegetables and fruits due to the closure of stalls? Could they keep the stuff which they brought at a high cost for retail selling in an unrotten condition until then?

In view of these circumstances, when a curfew is imposed taking effect instantly the same day, both the public and merchants suffer serious problems. Therefore, would the authorities consider giving the public at least one full day in advance of such an event?

M. B. NAVARATHNE