A 14-day lockdown in Guwahati imposed on Sunday evening in view to fight the rising number of Coronavirus cases within the city, which the opposition Congress termed the failure of the Assam health minister.
Kamrup Metropolitan district, under which Guwahati falls, was completely locked down from 7 pm on Sunday till 6 pm on July 12 with even shops of grocery, meat, and everyone other items downing the shutters. Only pharmacies are allowed to function.
This time, authorities have decided to not issue any vehicle pass even for essential services as there have been many instances of its misuse during the nationwide lockdown that came into effect on March 25.

Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi criticized the choice to impose a stricter lockdown in Guwahati and blamed it to the inefficacy of Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. "Lockdown declared by Dr. Himanta B Sarma isn't only unwise & also to hide up his failure in containing COVID patients but also did not adequately arrange hospital beds for treatment. Ultimately adversely affecting the daily wage earners, natives," he had tweeted.

As grocery and vegetable shops will remain closed during the lockdown, people across the town thronged markets and department shops to stock the essentials, ignoring norms of social distancing.
Large gatherings and long queues were seen at shops, markets, and ATMs.
Taking advantage of things, retailers of vegetables and fishes increased the costs exorbitantly in most areas of the town. The costs of potatoes rose to Rs 80 a kg from around Rs 25 last week, while cucumber was priced at Rs 100 per kg.
Tomatoes and squash were selling at Rs 120 per kg, while onions were being sold at Rs 40-50 per kg.
Many people expressed anguish because the lockdown came into force in month-end when salary wasn't credited in their accounts yet, thereby putting them during a fix.
A rickshaw puller reportedly said, "I can earn just for the day's need. Where will I buy money to store for 14 days? At these high prices, I cannot feed my family properly for at some point even. If there's no help from the govt, my family will starve to death."