GUWAHATI: The United Garo Autonomous Council Movement Committee (UGACMC) on Tuesday alleged that despite a memorandum to the Goalpara district administration, traders and labourers from orange zones continue to flout COVID-19 safety protocols while selling farm produce near villages close to the Assam-Meghalaya border.
UGACMC, Assam state chairman, Alex K. Sangma told The Shillong Times on Tuesday that farmers and traders from Meghalaya ferry their agriculture produce to Goalpara district and dump them along the roadside of NH-217 (NH-51 and NH-62) near the villages of Berubari, Kasumari (Kharkutta), Damra and Jayramkuchi in Goalpara district.
“Traders and labourers from orange zone areas of Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Dhubri districts are engaged in the sale of these farm products along the highway without following the guidelines of COVID-19. The highway has virtually become a weekly bazaar. We can see traders from both the states continuing to violate the COVID-19 lockdown norms and ignore frequent appeals by the administration,” Sangma said.
The UGACMC submitted another memorandum to the Goalpara deputy commissioner in this regard on Tuesday.
“However, the trade near Berubari has stopped over the past couple of days with the intervention of Goalpara superintendent of police,” he said.
“But the residents of the villages are anxious and in a state of fear over the possible spread of the novel coronavirus as most of the traders and labourers engaged in the trade are violating norms by not adhering to social distancing and personal hygiene protocols,” Sangma said.
“The Assam government needs to launch a crackdown on such violations by traders while selling farm produce alongside the highway. We urge the district administration to stop such activities as well as the dumping and selling of any product on the roadside near these border villages,” the UGACMC chairman stated in the memorandum.