Industries allowed to function during curfew

The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration has allowed all industrial units to function during the weekend curfew in the district.

Officials said that the employees will have to produce their IDS when asked.

The same will be implemented in Ghaziabad as well. The move comes after the Awnish Kumar Awasthi, additional chief secretary to UP government, issued a letter to the district administrations and police on Wednesday. On April 16, the government had issued directions for shutdown from 8 pm on Saturday to 7am on Monday. On Tuesday, the government again issued the directions to extend the weekend curfew from Friday 8pm till Monday 7am.

Sudhir Shrivastava, Noida Entrepreneurship Association (NEA) vice president and spokesperson, welcomed the move. “The industries have already been closed for months and suffered losses. Now they function with limited workforce,” he said.

Gautam Budh Nagar on Wednesday registered four Covid-19 deaths, taking the death toll to 118, according to the state’s health bulletin. The district recorded 536 cases, taking the tally of active cases to 4,009.

Meanwhile, most of the government and private hospitals in the district faced shortage of oxygen. While the district required 60 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen a day, the supply was less than 10 MT.

Suhas LY, district magistrate, GB Nagar, said that due to rise in the number of Covid patients, the oxygen demand had increased sharply. “There is acute shortage of oxygen in the hospitals but the supply has not stopped. We are trying to manage things with limited resources,” he said.