Chaos at Delhi’s entry points
NEWDELHI/GURUGRAM/NOIDA: Massive traffic jams at the national capital’s borders, hundreds stranded at bus terminals and railways stations, and a marginal drop in some supplies marked the first day of Delhi’s lockdown – urgently put in place to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) – illustrating how little several citizens and authorities knew about what to expect from the once-a-generation measures.
Delhi is among about 80 districts across the country to clamp down on public transport, gatherings and other non-essential activity by appealing to people that social distancing is the sole weapon against Covid-19 entering a full-blown community transmission stage. In this phase of a public health crisis, an individual’s infection can’t be traced to its source.
On Monday, the first day of the lockdown that will be in place at least till March 31, hordes of vehicles could be seen causing snarls at Delhi’s borders that have been sealed for non-essential travellers. Hundreds of motorists argued and pleaded with policemen at check posts set up at entry points from Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Faridabad to let them pass, but many were turned away. While some could not present legitimate reasons to be out on the streets, among those denied entry were also some genuine essential services personnel and people who appeared to be returning home to Delhi from UP and Haryana. Delhi Police commissioner SN Srivasatava earlier said Delhi residents would be allowed to enter if they were stuck beyond the borders. At the entry points, however, the police could be seen letting through workers and vehicles engaged in most essential services after checking their identity cards.
In Delhi, public transport services, shops, markets, religious places, privates offices, commercial establishments and factories are not being allowed to function till March 31. The Delhi Police have imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, banning gatherings. The drastic measures followed sweeping lockdown announcements by the Centre on Sunday. The central government has suspended trains, interstate buses and Metro rail services across the country till March 31 and locked down about 80 districts. On Monday, the central government directed the states to strictly enforce the lockdown and take legal actions against violators. The death toll from Covid-19 rose to nine and the number of cases went up to 471, including 424 active cases, the Union health ministry said late on Monday.
Other than the chaos at the borders, hundreds of passengers belonging to other states found themselves stranded at the various bus terminals and railway stations as interstate buses and trains stood cancelled.
The railway stations mostly wore a deserted look, with the alighting passengers heading out the only ones to be seen apart from the railway employees. Many of them walked to the nearest bus terminals, which were also shut. Delhi is served by three interstate bus terminals – Kashmere Gate, Sarai Kale Khan and Anand Vihar – and thousands of buses depart from these terminals every day. A large number of the people stranded at some of these terminals belonged to Nepal and were returning from states such as Karnataka and Kerala. While streets in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and Ghaziabad were largely deserted, the build-up at the borders posed a security and public health challenge to the authorities. The police could be seen telling people that they would issue challans to book violators and using loudspeakers to warn those getting into debates.
“Please, no arguments,” a policeman repeatedly told a man in a car coming from Faridabad to Delhi. “My children and wife are alone at home. I had visited Faridabad last night to drop some relatives home,” Santosh Pathak, who works for a telecommunication company, told the policeman. He produced his car’s registration certificate in a bid to convince the police that he was a resident of Delhi, but they refused him entry.
The policemen on duty told motorists they had nearly 12 hours after the announcement of the lockdown to cross the border.
At news briefing to announce the lockdown on Sunday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal assured people they will not be stopped if they present valid reasons to be outdoors. The motorists on both sides were stopped twice on Monday – once by the police of the city they were coming from and then by the police of the city they were entering.
People complained that even those working as food delivery agents, hospital staff and local residents were not being allowed to cross the Delhi-noida border.
According to an official posted at Delhi-gurugram border, an ambulance was stuck in a traffic jam because of cars lining up at the entry point and could move only after 30 minutes. Among those affected on Monday were also factory workers. Some of them said they knew only of the “janta curfew” but not about the lockdown. Bhuvan Singh, who works in Govindpuri, said he got a bus till the Badarpur border, but that he planned to walk all the way to his home in Palwal.