Ragojipet village loses battle with Corona after holding ground for over a year

Jagtial: Persistent efforts by villagers, local communities and the village panchayat to prevent the entry of Coronavirus to the area in the past year-and-a-half had proven to be successful until now, but it emerged on Monday that the virus tore into their will and hit three members of the village.

The Ragojipet village in Medipally mandal of Jagtial district had ably stood out and won praise by not having even a single Covid-positive case there so far.

The small village with a population of 1,150 is divided into 350 households. Villagers led by the sarpanch Balasani Laharika took all precautionary steps from the beginning after the pandemic raised its lethal head across the world since the start of last year.

Right from the beginning, the village panchayat passed resolutions and imposed self-lockdown and  controlled the virus’ entry at its boundary by tying ropes across at entry points on all the four sides. The panchayat also deployed one villager at a time at each entry point as a guard to keep people from other areas away.

Mike-set announcements were made every morning, advising people about the steps to be taken to protect themselves from being infected.

Village sarpanch Balasani Laharika and other functionaries of the village panchayat, the municipal staff and the district administration regularly supervised the sanitation and drainage works and took up sprinkling of chloride solution in the entire village.

By seeing these steps in Ragojipet, the surrounding villages too took inspiration and followed suit.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, village sarpanch B Laharika said they took precautionary steps and have imposed a self-lockdown in the village. A penalty of Rs1,000 was imposed on those who violated the Covid19 rules. Grocery stores were allowed to open only for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. Villagers remained at their homes from 8am to 6pm and this was followed by night curfew from 8pm.

With the help of municipal staff, the entire village was sanitized and sanitizer bottles were attached to each electricity pole in the village. Outsiders were not allowed to enter the village other than in an emergency. They had to enter their details in a register.

In the past few days, a fever survey was conducted in the village and 13 inhabitants were found suffering from mild fever. “We immediately shifted them to a hospital for a check-up. It was then found that three members who went to the neighbouring village to consume toddy (Kallu) got infected by the virus. As soon as the test reports were received, they were asked to remain in home isolation,” she said, expressing her and the villagers’ deep disappointment.