The administration is looking at cordoning off Chowk Bazar, the biggest market in the Darjeeling town, and restricting entry of people in an attempt to regulate crowd.

The initiative comes at a time the government is struggling to regulate footfalls at markets across the state.

Darjeeling has not reported any positive Covid-19 cases till date but over the past few days, there was a sudden surge in the number of people visiting Chowk Bazar.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Binay Tamang, who was here on Wednesday, said people were increasingly violating guidelines stipulated by the central and state governments and even the local administration.

“At 11.30am tomorrow (Thursday), police, district administration and municipality officials will go around Chowk Bazar. I will also be present. We are working on various restrictions and after the meeting tomorrow, we will finalise the details to be adopted from Friday,” said Tamang.

Sources said the administration was considering a proposal to allow only a stipulated number of people at Chowk Bazar at one-go.

“The plan is to cordon the market off and have a dedicated entry and exit routes. People will not be allowed to enter Chowk Bazar from other routes. We are trying to put a restriction on the number of people entering the market,” said a source.

The other proposal is to allow only trade licence holders to open shops. “We are noticing that people are vending at different spots. We want to the control the vendors,” said the source.

However, there were also suggestions that the vendors, too, could be accommodated inside Chowk Bazar. “One needs to understands the economic hardship people are facing,” said another sources.

Many believe with vegetable shops shuttering around 3pm, people are scrambling between 10am and 12 noon. “If the people are told that the vegetables shop will remain open till 5pm, I think the crowd will be less,” a local resident said.

Plans are also afoot to ensure strict compliance with wearing of masks by anyone venturing out their homes.

Tamang said: “Today (Wednesday), we found out that people were using old police permits to travel in town. We will look into these matters also.”