When you love your samosa but are not allowed to step out of your house due to the coronavirus lockdown, what do you do? Residents of the Indian capital of Delhi found a quirky solution that Delhi district officials, deployed in containment areas, don’t seem very happy about it. Delhiites are keeping the officials on their toes with odd requests like chicken biryani, mutton, pizza, sweets and hot samosas.
Many social media users found the news reports hilarious and shared them on Twitter on April 19.
Tweep @artilal wrote: "Looks like samosas hold thir on spot on the list of 'essential items' for Delhites."
And, summarising the emotion, tweep @fawziat posted: "No compromise on food."
In a containment zone, people are not allowed to step out of their houses and government ensures delivery of essential items at their doorstep. Once an area is declared a containment zone, administration and police officials create a WhatsApp group where people place requests for essential items and authorities ensure their delivery at the doorstep.
Requesting anonymity, an official deployed at the government-run quarantine facility in Outer Delhi's Narela told news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) that several residents have asked officials to provide them chicken biryani and mutton.
In South Delhi, which has nine containment zones, some people demanded officials to deliver pizza and hot samosa. And, in some containment zones in East, Central and Central Delhi, they even received demands for sweets, according to reports.
"We don't fulfil frivolous demands. At a time when an area is sealed and declared containment zone in such a crisis, our duty is to ensure delivery of only essential items like vegetables, water and milk. We have told our field officials to ignore unusual demands ," the senior official told PTI.
The Delhi government has identified 76 containment zones in the wake of coronavirus spread.
The total number of COVID-19 cases crossed the 2,000-mark in the national capital on Sunday, even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Delhi government will not relax the lockdown for at least a week as the coronavirus spread appears to have gained pace.
According to a bulletin issued by the Delhi health department yesterday, 110 fresh cases were reported, taking the tally in the national capital to 2,003. With two deaths, the fatalities jumped to 45.
