Cooperation is key to controlling rising COVID cases

This picture has been used for representational purpose Pic/Satej Shinde

It is crack the whip time for Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Vishwas Nangre Patil, who has given instructions to the force to beef up checking adherence to Covid-19 protocols by the citizens.

The top cop said that the force is poised to intensify action against those found without masks in public places. Ganesh mandals have been told to encourage online darshan. They have also been told to issue tokens for those wanting to come to the mandal to pay their respects to Ganpati bappa. Yet they have to give five tokens at a time in order to control crowds.

This paper had earlier reported about how the Lalbaugcha Raja mandal which will have a small idol this time, was debating whether to allow even a small group of devotees for veneration.

Their reservations stemmed from the fact that given the devotion and the iconic image of the mandal, even that a little leeway would mean that crowds would swell quickly to unmanageable numbers in Covid-19 times.

On Thursday evening, the BMC numbers said that cases stood at 441 in Mumbai and there were 47 sealed buildings as of September 1. It was only on a few days that cases were hovering around the 200 and a little over mark and Mumbaikars were hoping for numbers to dip even lower.

Respect guidelines and if you cannot, then respect the man in uniform who will then use his power to do so, it is as simple as that. Let us not then defy the police, argue with them or question the commissioner about the mandate to enforce rules with more robustness than before.

Let us at least fear numbers if nothing else and behave appropriately. A decline needs discipline. Let us show we have it in us.