PM?Modi had called for a nine-minute candlelight vigil on Sunday as a means to dispel the darkness spread by the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of Indians switched off lights in their homes and lit diyas and candles to spread the message. As soon as the clock struck 9, the skies across the country lit up with crackers for no reason at all!?
AP
'Covidots' once again crossed the line and took a completely different approach to the Prime Minister's plea. People started off by lighting diyas and candles in balconies and soon escalated to crackers, blowing of conches and chanting ¡®Go Corona Go¡¯.?While the conches and the slogan did not harm anyone, the crackers certainly did.
What was supposed to be a show of collective solidarity in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic turned into a display of needless and relentless cracker-bursting.??The worst part is that the 'mini Diwali' people celebrated, turned into a fire hazard in many places.
In one incident, a?thatched house on a vacant plot of land caught fire in the Vaishali Nagar area in Jaipur.?Chief Fire Officer, Jagdish Phulwari, said that two firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control, adding that no one was present in the house at the time of the incident.
Sources claim that it could have been a flying lantern which fell on a hut and the latter caught fire. A house near the hut also burnt, but the firefighters were on the spot to contain it.??
Another fire broke out on a stretch of grass near the runway of the Solapur airport in Maharashtra on Sunday night.?
"The fire broke out at 9:30 pm. We sent four fire tenders to the spot and the fire was extinguished within 15 to 20 minutes,"?a fire brigade official said.
Fire also broke out in Patna's Ramkrishnavl Nagar, while people were lighting diyas and bursting crackers.
The Prime Minister had earlier asked people to clap or beat utensils on March 22 for five minutes at 5:00 pm while observing 'janta curfew' from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm, to thank those working in essentials services. At the time, there were a lot of people who took to roads and gathered in groups to do the same, completely disregarding the social distancing guidelines, and thus turning a deaf ear to what the PM Modi had actually said.
The total number of coronavirus cases in India today jumped to 4,067 after nearly 700 new infections were reported in past 24 hours, according to the latest data from Health Ministry. The death toll has gone up to 109 while 291 have recovered, as per the latest data. Maharashtra (690) was the worst affected state, followed by Tamil Nadu (571) and Delhi (503). On Sunday, the Health Ministry had reported 472 fresh cases.