HC for closure in 5 cities, UP govt says no for now
Court says it’s a shame govt never planned things in advance, expresses displeasure over panchayat polls
PRAYAGRAJ/LUCKNOW: Amid a surge in Covid-19 infection cases, the Allahabad high court on Monday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to strictly enforce the closure of establishments (government or private) in Prayagraj, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur Nagar and Gorakhpur till April 26 except financial institutions and departments, medical and health services, industrial and scientific establishments, essential services, including municipal functions and public transport.
While the court clarified that it was not imposing a complete lockdown in the entire state by its order but would like the government to consider it, the UP government said there will be no “imposition of statewide lockdown or any fresh restrictions in the five cities (Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Kanpur City, and Gorakhpur)”. The court directive and the government’s stance came on a day on which Uttar Pradesh recorded 167 more deaths and 28,287 fresh Covid-19 infection cases. The state capital alone saw 22 deaths and 5,897 fresh cases.
“There should be no confusion. The high court has asked us to consider. We have considered,” said a state government spokesperson. “The government has already taken several steps and will do so in the future. Saving lives is a priority but so is saving the livelihood of the poor. Thus, the cities will have no lockdown as of now. People themselves in a proactive manner (are) doing closures,” the spokesperson also said.
Additional chief secretary (information) Navneet Sehgal
“The UP government is submitting its reply before the HC on its observations.”
Earlier in the day, the bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar passed the order in a suo motu public interest litigation on conditions of quarantine centres in the state and the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The court further directed the state government to ensure that grocery shops and other commercial shops, excluding medicine shops, with more than three workers shall remain closed till April 26. Likewise, all malls, shopping complexes, restaurants and eateries shall remain closed till then, it said.
Further, all religious places shall also remain closed for the period and no social function, except marriage, should be allowed, the court said.
In case of marriage, a gathering of 25 people can be allowed with the permission of the district magistrate concerned.
Vegetable and milk vendors will be allowed to sell goods on the road only till 11am and all public movement on roads will be restricted completely subject to these directions, it said.
Public movement is also permitted by the court in case of medical help and emergencies.
The bench observed, “Above directions are nowhere close to a complete lockdown. We are conscious of the fact that before imposing a lockdown the concerned government has to work out various modalities. In this order if we have not imposed a lockdown, it does not mean that we do not believe in it. We are still of the view that if we want to break the chain, a lockdown for a duration of at least two weeks is a must.”
“We, therefore, once again in addition to the directions we have already given, direct the government to consider imposition of a complete lockdown in the entire state for at least a period of two weeks. This would not only break the chain of the spread of the virus, but would also give respite to the health workers,” the bench added.
On the increase in number of Covid-19 patients, the bench said, “The recent surge of pandemic Covid-19 has virtually incapacitated all our medical infrastructure in the state of UP and specially in cities like Prayagraj, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur and Gorakhpur. It appears that the pandemic is teasing the system in a situation where patients have outnumbered the hospital beds and people are just running from pillar to post and in this process attendants of patients are not only getting infected but others in public are also getting infected and a complete chain has got formed.”
During the course of the hearing, the court was informed that the state government was taking steps to increase beds for patients like three makeshift hospitals of 1000 beds at Lucknow and to increase 20 beds per day in Prayagraj.
On this, 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 even imagine what will happen if only 10% of the city population gets infected and needs medical help in hospitals. How the government will manage with the presently existing infrastructure is anybody’s guess.”
“Economy, economy and economy is the only tune that the government is all the time harping upon, but bread and butter if you take to a person who needs oxygen and medication, it will be of no use to him. You may have grocery shops full of eatables and industries which produce bikes and cars, but all this won’t be of any use if your medical shops run out of the stock of life saving drugs like Remdesivir in the current surge of pandemic. It is a shame that while the government knew of the magnitude of the second wave, it never planned things in advance,” the bench observed.
“In any civilised society if public health system is not able to meet the challenges and people die for want of proper medication, it means there has been no proper development. Health and education go side-by-side. Those in the helm of affairs of governance are to be blamed for the present chaotic health problems and more so when there is a democracy which means a government of the people, by the people and for the people,” the court said.
On the delay in providing Covid-19 test reports to patients, the bench observed, “We have been informed that people are getting developed influenzalike infections in every fifth house of every Mohalla in the city and tracking-tracing and testing system, if has not failed, has certainly not been able to meet the requirement of the population of the city. Reports are neither updated before 72 hours nor samples are taken care of, owing to the shortage of manpower. Only VVIPs are getting reports within 6-12 hours. Thus, early testing scheme or plan is a farce.”
On the necessity of the lockdown, the court said, “We are of definite view that if things are not arrested to give some respite to medical and paramedical staff, the entire system would collapse and relief will be confined to VIPs and VVIPs. We find from the scenario that emerges from the government hospitals that admission of patients to ICUs are largely being done on the recommendation of VIPs. Even supply of life saving anti-viral drug namely Remdesivir is being provided only on the recommendation of VIPs. VIPs and VVIPs are getting their RT-PCR report within 12 hours, whereas ordinary citizen is kept waiting for such reports for two to three days and thus, spreading further infection to other members of his/her family.”
On the panchayat election being conducted during the pandemic, the bench observed, “We must record our displeasure at the way government and the State Election Commission proceeded to hold elections forcing teachers and other government staff to perform duties exposing themselves to the threat of pandemic that looms large these days. The police was virtually shifted to polling places giving priority to election above public health.”
“Further the photographs of the various places where elections were held definitely show that no social distancing was maintained. Also we find that on many occasions in various political rallies, masks were never worn by people,” the bench observed while directing the authorities to take actions against the erring organisers of political events and place the action taken report by the next date of hearing, which is fixed as April 26.
For its part, the state governsaid, ment said in a statement that it had already introduced several stringent and significant measures to control Covid-19. These included corona night curfews in all districts with weekly closure statewide till May 15, provision of containment zones; sanitization; stringent fines up to Rs 10,000 for not wearing mask in public places (for repeat offenders), screening at airports, railway and bus stations.
“The state government seriously considered the HC order, and taking into account the stringent measures which would help in Covid containment, the state government has, for the time being, decided not to impose full lockdown,” the statement added.