Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has imposed a 6-day lockdown in the Capital, beginning from 19th April 10:00 p.m. till 26th April 5:00 a.m. This decision has been taken after a huge increase in Covid-19 patients in Delhi.
“There is a shortage of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and medical supplies such as the anti-viral Remdesivir”, said CM Arvind Kejriwal. “I appeal to everyone to follow this lockdown, as it is necessary to reduce Covid cases, we will improve health system during this lockdown time.”, he added.
WHAT’s OPEN:
Essential and emergency services will be open during this 6-day lockdown period. Public transport (bus, metro, railways, air) will also be operational. Marriages would be restricted to 50 people only and passes would be given to people attending marriage functions.
WHAT’S CLOSED:
All private offices, shopping malls, weekly markets, theatres, coaching institutes, gyms, spas, salons, public parks shall remain closed during the lockdown.
As soon as the 6-day lockdown was announced there were huge queues outside liquor stores. People were spotted collecting huge stocks of wine and liquor carelessly without any social distancing.
With this kind of attitude among people, being careless at a critical time like this, will we be able to control the second Wave of Covid-19? Lockdown and curfew are imposed to avoid huge gatherings among people. Even in lockdown people will be able to buy essential and necessary stuff. But at a time like this alcohol seems to be more important to people than any other stuff.
A few opinions floating around the society deem this move as a necessity even though they fear a hard lockdown might lead to a mental breakdown of sorts. However, some people are even questioning the move and the strategy of not vaccinating the “more exposed” first as opposed to the “more vulnerable”, asking the vaccination to be extended to the people who are likely to go out from a household which eventually carries more chances of getting in the virus home. Opinions like “Strict lockdown along with vaccination for all irrespective of age” are also popular around society.
How AAP Govt failed to address labour issues before announcing lockdown and created another migrant Crisis?
Anand Vihar Bus Terminal flooded with a massive crowd of migrant labourers to return to their hometown post-Delhi CM announced a six-day lockdown. They said they don’t want a repeat of last year’s crisis. Covid protocol went for a toss as people rushed towards buses with their families. Even the police could not manage the crowd.
This comes after the Chief Minister requested migrant labourers to not leave Delhi as the duration of the lockdown is short and assured them that the government will take care of their needs during this period.
#WATCH | Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal appeals to the migrant labourers. He says, "I appeal to you with folded hands. It's a small lockdown, only for 6 days. Don't leave Delhi & go. I'm very hopeful that we won't need to further extend the lockdown…Govt will take care of you." pic.twitter.com/OsFCytHCNu
— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2021
However, migrant workers waiting for buses at Anand Vihar Bus Terminal amid a week-long lockdown in NCT say “We’re daily wagers, CM should have given us some time before announcing it. It takes us Rs 200 to reach home, but they’re charging Rs 3,000–4,000 now, how will we go home?” an ANI report said.
Furthermore, the Delhi High Court on Monday said that the Centre and AAP government miserably failed to think about migrant workers during last year’s lockdown, PTI reported.
Taking note of the restrictions imposed on Monday, the court said that the “lessons are taken from the past lockdown”.
The court had suo motu revived the petition which was disposed of earlier, taking cognisance of the second wave of the pandemic.
“With the imposition of curfew, the daily wagers are again faced with a grim reality.”
“Both the state and central governments have miserably failed. You left it to the good samaritans to come out of their houses and distribute food to the migrant labourers,” the Delhi High court said.
