Uttar Pradesh created a record by carrying out over 71,000 Covid tests on Saturday, inching towards the target of one lakh tests per day.
Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner Alok Tandon said that in all, 71,881 samples had been tested in the state in a single day on Saturday, the highest till date. “Thus far, 18,34,297 samples have been tested in the state, crossing the 18 lakh-mark in COVID-19 testing,” he said during the daily press briefing here on Sunday.
Tandon said that a total of 2,764 pools had been examined under pool testing, which included 2534 5-sample pools and 230 10-sample pools.
He said that under the surveillance activities in the state, about 6.96 crore people in about 1.37 crore houses had been surveyed by 1,90,282 surveillance teams. He said that 2,792 people had been kept in home isolation in the state.
Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said that 14.49 crore people had downloaded the Aarogya Setu app so far in the country and 2.47 crore of them in belonged to Uttar Pradesh.
“Over 7,95,911 units of micro, small, medium and large categories are operational in the state in which 49,73,000 workers are employed,” he said.
Tandon said that in the third phase of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, food grains were distributed between June 20 and June 30
on 13.69 crore units of the total 3.34 crore ration cards against the 3.95 crore ration cards in circulation. Apart from this, free food grains were distributed on 2.64 lakh ration cards against a total of 2.88 lakh ration cards in the second phase of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme, he added.
He said that from July 21, distribution of food grains had been started under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and till date, free food grains had been distributed on 2.62 crore ration cards against 3.57 crore ration cards in circulation.
Awasthi said that normal rainfall was expected in the state. He said sowing of about 71 per cent of Kharif crops had been completed so far, which was 63.5 lakh hectares more than sown in the same period last year.
He said that 5.04 lakh destitute bovines had been kept in 5,076 cow shelters in the state and for these bovines, 3,369 fodder banks had been set up in the districts and an additional arrangement of 7.68 lakh quintals of fodder had been ensured.
Awasthi said that as per the information received from the Revenue department, only 28 community kitchens were being run in the state.
He said that according to the Rural Development department, 21.90 lakh labourers were provided employment under MGNREGA in 48,420 gram panchayats of Uttar Pradesh. He said that honoraria to the tune of Rs. 3,571.43 crore had been paid and 17.61 crore man-days of employment had been created in various gram panchayats of the state.
Awasthi said that 4.88 lakh passengers had travelled by 4,200 buses of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation on Saturday and the Roadways buses were being operated on Saturdays and Sundays.
He said that till July 24, 2020, 18,089 prisoners had been released on bail/parole in the state. These prisoners have been given extra time as per order of the Supreme Court.
Awasthi said that 3,10,983 people had been booked in 1,44,418 FIRs registered under the Section 188 by the Home department. He said so far, 8,021 barriers had been established in the state and in the intensive checking of 1.04 crore vehicles, 28.05 lakh vehicles had been booked and a mitigation fee of Rs 51.97 crore had been collected.
He said that to stop black marketing and hoarding, action had been taken against 1,019 persons by registering 764 FIRs under the Essential Commodities Act.
He said 10,92,411 houses had been identified in 6,092 hotspot areas under 999 police stations in the state.
Awasthi said that under the Fake News, a total of 326 cases had been taken into cognisance so far out of which 151 accounts of Twitter, 114 of Facebook, 60 of TikTok and one of WhatsApp had been blocked.