Janata Curfew evokes spontaneous response in U'khand

Uttarakhand woke up to an unusually quiet Sunday morning with the normal sights and sounds of daybreak missing as people chose to stay at home in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a Janata Curfew to check the spread of the coronavirus.

Roads and parks were devoid of joggers and morning walkers and shutters were down at marketplaces across the state.

Shops and business establishments all over Dehradun, including those at Clock Tower, Chakrata Road and Rajpur Road, remained shut as several trade bodies, including the Uttarakhand Vyapar Mandal, are supporting the curfew.

However, milk vans were seen moving through the empty streets to supply milk to the residents.

Essential services have been kept out of the ambit of the curfew.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had appealed to people to strictly observe the curfew, terming it a measure for their own safety.

With the roads being deserted, municipal bodies utilised the opportunity to sanitise those in view of public safety.

Uttarakhand has reported three coronavirus cases so far. All of them are Indian Forest Service (IFS) probationers from the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI), who had recently returned from a study tour to Spain.