Restriction on gatherings of more than five persons in Kerala sparks political row

While the Kerala government's decision to impose a ban on gatherings of more than five persons has triggered allegations of political motives, the state government clarified that the restrictions would be imposed only after assessing the situations in each district.

By Friday evening restrictions on gatherings were imposed in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam districts by the respective district collectors.

BJP and a section of leaders of the Congress alleged that the government decision to enforce section 144 of the CrPC was aimed at suppressing the stirs against the government.

Hence the opposition political parties would be forced to break such restrictions imposed with political intentions, they said.

Meanwhile, Kerala revenue minister E Chandrasekharan said that the district collectors would be issuing region-specific orders on imposing the restrictions.

Kerala Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta on Thursday issued the order stating that gatherings of more than five people at a time will be banned in the state from October 3 to 31 in view of the surge in Covid-19 by invoking CrPC section 144.

BJP state president K Surendran said that the government was fearing of the mounting protests of people against it. Hence the restriction on gatherings was being imposed with the intention of suppressing stirs.

The Congress was quite divided on the matter. While Kerala PCC president Mullappally Ramachandran maintained that the government's instructions to curb Covid need to be followed by all, senior leader and Lok Sabha MP K Muraleedharan said that the government's intention was to suppress stir by using the cover of Covid.

Meanwhile, the daily fresh Covid cases in Kerala crossed the 9,000 mark on Friday as 9,258 fresh cases were reported, taking the total number of infected to 2,13,299. The number of active cases reached 77,482.