The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to go for over 50-hour restrictions every weekend, starting Friday night till early Monday morning, when all shops and business establishments will remain closed while government and private offices will operate with limited staff.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made this announcement during his routine meeting with the Team 11 here on Sunday.
The government spokesman said that all markets across the state would remain closed from 10 pm on Friday to 5 am on Monday and the local transport, including inter-city bus services, would also remain off the road during this period.
However, he said, emergency services like hospitals, medicine shops, home delivery of essential commodities, would function normally and employees engaged in duty would be allowed to travel showing their identity cards.
“During this restriction period, the markets will be sanitised and local district administration will decide about it after consulting the traders’ union,” he said.
The spokesman said that the district administrations had been authorised to regulate opening of markets in their jurisdictions. “If the district magistrate feels, he/she can order opening of markets or shops in a staggered manner. The decision should be taken in such a way that gathering of people in markets is less and their movement is systematic,” he said.
The government has exempted big constructions, whether government or private, from the purview of this restriction. However, industrial units in rural areas would function normally but in the urban areas, only those factories would be allowed to run that have continuous production process.
Meanwhile, life came to a standstill during the 55-hour restriction which ended on Monday morning. Traffic was off the road and the markets wore a deserted look.
“This decision has definitely helped us in breaking the coronavirus chain. The outcome will be evident in coming days,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad.
The decision was necessitated after a spike in coronavirus cases in the last few days, prompting the chief minister to issue directives to follow government guidelines.
The government also increased the fine without a mask by five times from Rs 100 to Rs 500.