LARKANA:As many as eight educational coaching centers were sealed off here on Monday which were opened in sheer violation of standing orders issued by the provincial government to close down all educational institutions, marriage halls, Urs celebrations and so forth as a precautionary measures to stop spread of corona virus.
These centers were opened by the owners as a greed and were sealed by a team of Revenue Officers led by assistant commissioner Iqbal Ahmed Tunio and Mukhtiarkar Wazir Chand Oad. These centers included Classic Center, Maps Center, Friends, Al-Hafeez Decent Academy, English Academy, Alpha Coaching Center, Quaid-e-Awam Public School and others. The team also warned them not to repeat their activities until ban is lifted by the government. Oad told reporters that violators will be dealt with iron hands because, he added, precautionary measures had been taken to save the people of Sindh.
Meanwhile, after the outbreak of corona cases, face masks and sanitizers have either vanished from Larkana or are being sold in exorbitant rates which are beyond the reach of common men who have left themselves at the mercy of their creator. This was revealed in a survey carried out by this correspondent in Larkana. The 250 ml hand sanitizers made in Pakistan is usually sold for Rs 150 which was being sold between Rs 400 to 500 by the retail shopkeepers.
Likewise, face masks were not available in the market but those shopkeepers who have managed to procure from Karachi and other big cities were selling it at higher rates. A box is usually purchased by the allergy users but they are the worst affected as the mask box was being sold between 1200 to 1500 which too is not available at many stores. Retailers were interested to sale it one by one to earn more profit.
On the direction of provincial transport minister, secretary, Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Aijaz Ahmed Surhio came out of his office and distributed free masks among the passengers who were either travelling to Hyderabad or Karachi through coaches, buses or vans. He also distributed pamphlets to make awareness among the transporters and their customers about corona virus. He directed the transporters to take all precautionary measures so that travelling passengers are not infected from the dreaded and deadly virus which has claimed so many lives in China, Italy and Iran.
Volunteers of an NGO were also seen distributing awareness pamphlets on Royal and other nearby roads among rickshaw, Chingchi and car drivers, donkey-cart and pushcart vendors, bikers and pedestrians.