Madhya Pradesh: 'Corona curfew' in Bhopal extended till May 3; Relief for street vendors, farmers

Bhopal, Apr 25: The 'corona curfew' imposed in Bhopal of Madhya Pradesh to tackle the surge in COVID-19 cases has been extended till May 3, an official said on Sunday. The curfew in the state capital was set to end at 6 am on April 26.

It has been extended in Bhopal and Berasia town of the district till 6 am on May 3, an order by Collector Avinash Lavaniya said. A week-long 'corona curfew' was first imposed in Bhopal city from 9 pm on April 12 to curb the rising cases of COVID-19.

It was further extended for another week from April 19 to April 26. It has now been extended for one more week.

Essential services will be exempted from the corona curfew and people arriving in the city or leaving by rail, bus etc will not be inconvenienced, officials said.

Bhopal on Saturday reported 1,776 fresh cases, pushing its infection count to 78,934, including 707 fatalities.

The chief minister also decided to give Rs 1,000 as relief to street vendors, while one instalment of the CM Kisan Kalyan Yojana will be deposited in the accounts of eligible farmers.

Under the state''s Kisan Kalyan Yojana, those enrolled in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) get Rs 4,000 in two equal instalments in their bank accounts.

He said the next instalment of the scheme would be given right away to farmers as relief amid the pandemic.

In his address, Chouhan said the infection positivity rate (detections per 100 tests) had come down from 24.29 per cent on April 22 to 23.01 per cent as on Sunday.

The number of people recovering from the infection was 6,836 on April 19 and this had gone up to 11,234 as on Sunday, the CM informed.