A day after the lockdown has been extended for two more weeks; a heavy movement of vehicles has been witnessed on the roads of the national capital on Monday.
Vehicles were seen plying near ITO – the centre of Delhi — as well as on the Delhi-Gurugram and Delhi-Noida borders as people came to attend offices.
The extended version of the lockdown comes with few relaxations in non-containment zones like opening of shops, allowing workers in the offices that too maintaining social distancing.
On Delhi-Noida Direct (DND), that connects South Delhi with Noida, heavy traffic was witnessed on Monday morning.
Long queues were seen at the check posts as many people were moving towards their offices. The queue went up to over a kilometre as the police were deployed to check passes and the identity cards of the people travelling.
A similar scene was at the Delhi-Gurugram border as people were riding towards their workplaces.
Herds of people were also seen at the Ghazipur Mandi where people arrived to make purchases amid the lockdown.
Ghazipur Mandi reopened on May 16 after being close for two days due to sanitization work after the secretary and deputy secretary of the market tested COVID-19 positive.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has asked ministries departments of Government of India, state governments and state authorities to continue the lockdown till May 31 keeping in mind the spread of deadly coronavirus.
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued guidelines on measures to be taken by Ministries/Departments of Government of India, State Governments/UT Governments & State/UT authorities for containment of COVID19.
Yesterday, soon after the Union government has extended the lockdown and Ministry of Home Affairs released guidelines regarding it, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said it is now time to relax the restrictions to some extent.
Taking it to Twitter, Delhi CM said, “Centre’s guidelines are largely in line with the proposal sent by Delhi govt based on suggestions of lakhs of Delhiites. We have used lockdown period to prepare our healthcare system if #corona cases increase but it is now time to relax the restrictions to some extent.”