Tourists suffer as Kerala hotels refuse to serve them

Ayodhya gears up for mega Ram Navami celebrations ■ All foreigners not Covid carriers, says CM

Ayodhya, March 17: The district administration is gearing up to hold mega Ram Navami mela despite the coronavirus scare and concerns expressed by many including the chief medical officer of Ayodhya about the health risk posed by a large congregation of 10 lakh devotees.

District Magistrate Anuj Kumar Jha said the Uttar Pradesh government has notified the Epidemic Act and the district administration is being empowered to take all steps to stop coronavirus.

“All orders are being issued according to the act and violation of the act will be punishable,” he said. Mr Jha said the administration has printed 50,000 posters highlighting precautions against coronavirus and these are being pasted at public places. He said the district administration is all prepared for the Ram Navami celebrations according to practice and will adopt all precautionary measures.

Chief Medical Officer of Ayodhya Ghanshyam Singh had earlier advised that the Ram Navami mela be cancelled to save the public from coronavirus.

Thiruvananthapuram, March 17: Despite the Kerala government disapproving acts of targeting foreigners over the coronavirus scare, instances of the visitors being singled out and humiliated have surfaced in the state.

The latest incident was reported from Kannur where two tourists had to go without a morsel of food for four days after hotels allegedly refused to serve them any.

The foreigners — a man and and a woman — were seen crying out of hunger on the wayside by locals in Payyannur in north Kerala town of Kannur following which the police and local authorities extended them a helping hand.

The French and Italian nationals later said they had reached Kannur on March 11 but had not got any food for the last four days and had been starving. They said they wandered here and there and knocked at the door of many hotels and restaurants for food but no one helped them.

Seeing the plight of the visitors, police and Payyannur civic body authorities bought them food and shifted them to Thalassery taluk hospital.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also said foreigners should not be seen as a COVID-19 carriers and warned those who tease them.

The tourists, who reached Kerala after visiting Mumbai, Goa and Madurai, had no symptom of the coronavirus, authorities said.

While hotels and resorts are denying foreigners rooms, restaurants are reluctant to give them food in many places even in well-known tourist destinations. Local people even chased them away out of fear of the spread of the virus and tried to evict them forcefully from public buses, the visitors complained.