Lockdown 3.0: Section 144 extended till May 17 in Noida
Noida/Ghaziabad: Both the Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad district administration are bracing for third face of lockdown, the directives from UP Chief Secretary for permitting industries, shops and business operations remained unclear in both the districts. Officials said that the situation is critical and taking a decision over what should be allowed and what not is a matter of discussion.
However, the Gautam Buddh Nagar Police have ordered to implement Section 144 around the district till May 17. Cops said that curfew-like restrictions will be followed daily for 12 hours between 7 pm to 7 am.
"Adhering to the guidelines issued by the State government all types of public gathering for religious, social, political or any other purposes will remain prohibited. Schools, mall, spa, religious places and all other restrictions will continue to be imposed. Taxi service, e-rickshaw or any other means of public transport will also continue to remain shut," said Ashutosh Dwivedi, additional DCP, Gautam Buddh Nagar.
The police have also issued guidelines of social distancing which states that for any type of marriage function not more than 50 persons should get involved and they must follow proper social distancing.
"Wearing masks at public place or while stepping outside house is mandatory and if any smartphone user is found without Arogya Setu app installed in his/her phone, it will be taken as violation of lockdown," the officer added.
Meanwhile, senior administration officers from both the districts informed that for a clarity over what services will be allowed to operate in next fourteen days, the decision will be taken after late night meeting on Sunday. However, areas other than containment and red zones are expected to get some relaxation. The containment zone will be limited to 400 metres in hotspot locality (where one case is reported) and 1 km in cluster (more than one case)
In another update, a total of 1,184 students from across various districts of Uttar Pradesh who were stranded in Noida and Greater Noida since the lockdown was imposed were sent to their home districts on Sunday. The administration arranged 51 buses who left to districts like Etah, Prayagraj, Mainpuri, Agra, Etawah, and Lucknow at around 7 pm in the evening.
As per a senior administrative officer, the buses were properly sanitised before they left from seven different spots around the district with 27-28 students in each bus with two police constable also deployed in every bus.
"All the students were screened for Covid before getting boarded and they will be again screened at their home district. Further they will be kept under home quarantine for next 14 days," said a senior administrative officer.
The officer further said that the district will also arrange transportation to ferry over a thousand other students to states like Madhya Pradesh, Jammu, Telangana, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh etc. "Letters have been sent and we are waiting for consent. Some special trains might also get started," the officer added.
Following this, several labourers who are left without work and have no money to feed themselves started gathering outside the police stations demanding that they should also be sent home. Cops said that the State government has only allowed transportation of students to the their home district/states, the order for movement of labourers is awaited.
