Ensure people stay where they are: Chief secy

LUCKNOW: The UP government has made it clear in no uncertain terms that it will not allow people to move from one district to another and strictly implement the lockdown declared by the Centre as a mechanism to fight Covid-19 pandemic.

Conveying this message, chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari on Friday directed all district magistrates and district police chiefs across the state to ensure that every citizen stayed where they were.

“We are receiving information continuously that a large number of people are coming to UP from other states by different means. For any state to allow such people to leave is not only violation of the central government’s lockdown order but it also increases the threat of transmission of Covid-19. In such a situation, this is very essential to ensure that people stay where they are,” Tiwari said in an order communicated to officials.

He asked the officials to put the destitute and people who had entered from other states in shelter houses with all arrangements for their food and fulfilment of other daily requirements. He said community kitchens should be set up for all such people. “But such people should not be allowed to go anywhere else at any cost,” the chief secretary stressed.

He said the government had decided to provide the shelter house facility with food and medical care to the destitute who belonged to other states but were staying in UP.