Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, the Allahabad High Court on Monday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to impose a week-long lockdown in Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur Nagar, Gorakhpur and Allahabad.
However, the Yogi Adityanath government has refused to follow the court directions. Reacting to the High Court order, government said that they "will not impose complete lockdown in any city as of now.”
The Additional Chief Secretary Information Navneet Sehgal said that it was true that number of active cases has gone up and it was important to take tough measures for its control.
"The state government has taken some effective steps and plans to take more in coming days to control the coronavirus cases. While saving lives of the people, it was important to safeguard their livelihood also," the state government said.
“It was due to this that there is no need for imposing complete lockdown in any city when people are themselves enforcing self lockdown,” stated the state government spokesman.
Earlier in the day, a two-member bench comprising Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Siddharth Varma directed the state government to impose lockdown in five worst-affected cities from Monday at 10 pm till April 26.
The bench said that during the complete lockdown even milk and bread should not be allowed to sell after 11 am.
