Complete lockdown in Bihar till May 15 to stop case rise
Decision comes a day after Patna HC orders govt to impose full lockdown
Bihar has been placed under a complete lockdown till May 15 to stop the surge in Covid-19 cases.
The announcement was made by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he held a meeting with ministers and officials.
Announcing his decision on social media Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said, “Lockdown has been enforced in the state till May 15 after consulting ministers and officials. The Bihar crisis management group has been directed to release a guideline in this regard”.
The decision comes a day after Patna High Court stepped in and ordered the government to impose a complete lockdown in the state. The court in its observation had said that “it seems that the state government is heading towards total failure. There is no action plan in this regard. Whatever plan you have submitted is not up to the mark and no steps have been taken. Everything is an eyewash”.
Earlier, the Indian Medical Association and heads of four government hospitals in Patna had also urged the Bihar government to enforce a complete lockdown to “break the chain of rising Covid-19 cases”.
As per the guidelines issued by the crisis management group after the lockdown was announced all essential services like healthcare, general provision stores, banking sector, E-commerce, and courier services, petrol pumps, and media have been exempted from the lockdown.
While the BJP welcomed the state government’s move to impose lockdown in the state, the opposition RJD blamed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the health department for the crisis.
Calling Nitish Kumar as “Chote Sahab” Tejashwi Yadav said in a tweet that “it seems he was following the order of his superiors that there can’t be a lockdown till May 2. For the last 15 days, the opposition had been demanding lockdown. Now when the infection has spread in the state including villages they are enforcing a lockdown. Come out of low-level gimmick and politics in this hour of crisis”.