HC wants 5 UP cities closed, Yogi govt rules out lockdown

Prayagraj/Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday refused to go for a lockdown, saying it was necessary to protect livelihoods of people, after the Allahabad HC directed the state government to enforce closure of government and private establishments in five cities — Lucknow, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Kanpur and Gorakhpur — till April 26 to break the Covid chain.

Hours after the HC directive, the UP government issued a statement, saying a “full lockdown would not be implemented in cities right now. People are voluntarily shutting establishments.”

Hearing a PIL on Covid care, a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar observed: “ We direct the government to consider imposition of a complete lockdown in the state for at least two weeks. This would not only break the Covid chain, but also give respite to health workers.”

The bench, however, clarified that these directions were nowhere close to a complete lockdown. “If popular government has its own political compulsions in not checking public movement during this pandemic, we cannot remain passive spectators. We can’t shirk away from our constitutional duty to save innocent people from the pandemic, which is spreading due to the negligence of a few,” the court observed.When the government counsel told the court that the state was taking steps to increase beds, the court observed: “One would only laugh at us that we have enough to spend on elections and very little to spend on public health. One cannot imagine what will happen if only 10% of a city population gets infected and needs medical help in hospitals. How will the government manage with the existing infrastructure is anybody's guess?