Gram Panchayat applies brakes on tourist activities

All kinds of tourist activities have been withdrawn in the district, as a measure to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

B Shettigeri Gram Panchayat in South Kodagu is the first Gram Panchayat in the district to issue an order directing the homestays to close their doors for tourists.

After it was noticed that tourists have been thronging the homestays in B Shettigeri since the last week, the Gram Panchayat administration has asked the Panchayat Development Officer to visit each and every homestay and issue notices to close the homestays till March 21.

The move by the Gram Panchayat has been appreciated by the people.

A nature camp and five homestays in the limits of the Panchayat have been asked to shut down temporarily. Two of the five homestays have stopped receiving online bookings.

The tourists who arrived in the village were convinced to go back.

Salon staff have been told to request their customers to get checked for Covid-19 if the symptoms are found.

Posters are displayed in public places.

The students of class 10, who were preparing for the board examination have been provided with a long break, owing to Covid-19.

Many students have not touched their books and are immersed in their mobile phones. While some students think that it is playtime, some others are gritting their teeth as the exams have been postponed. As the holidays have been declared all of a sudden, the students feel like a bird out of a cage.

It is a totally different situation with the students belonging to tribal families. They have been assisting their parents in coffee harvesting work. It will be difficult to bring them back, said Nagesh, a teacher from Government High School, Srimangala.

“The teachers have to go in search of them in coffee plantations,” he added.

Most of the students in the schools in Balele, Titimati, Birunani, Beeruga, B Shettigeri, Maldare, Ponnappasanthe, Palibetta and Chennayyanakote, belong to tribal communities.

PUC students are not encountering the problems as the final examination for First PUC students is completed and the board examinations of Second PU students is in progress.