Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday lakhs of daily wage labourers and construction workers will be given Rs 1000 as the state remained under lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus outbreak.
The state government had announced earlier in the week that it will provide financial assistance to daily-wage labourers hit by the shutdown.
Adityanath had formed a high-level committee under the state finance minister Suresh Khanna, comprising agriculture and labour ministers, to decide the nature of the assistance to the labourers.
“Rs 1000 each will be given to 15 lakh daily wage labourers and 20.37 lakh construction workers to help them meet their daily needs,” Adityanath said during a television address.
The chief minister said 23 people have been found to be infected with coronavirus in the state and that nine among them have recovered. He also urged people to adhere to Sunday’s Janta Curfew called by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I appeal to people to not panic over coronavirus. We have sufficient stock of essential commodities and medicines in the state. So, please don’t rush to shops to buy things and hoard commodities,” Adityanath said.
“Our preparation is on a war footing. We should not panic and the need of the hour is to fight it. Prevention is the best option,” he added.
Even as the state is under lockdown with school, colleges, mall and all public places shut, almost half of state capital of Lucknow was shuttered by officials on Friday after Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor tested positive for Sars-Cov-2.
Uttar Pradesh health minister Jai Pratap Singh underwent a test for Covid-19 as it emerged he was at a party thrown by the celebrity singer after her return from London recently. Three BJP MLAs who met him on Thursday also went into self-isolation.
Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, her son and BJP lawmaker Dushyant Singh, BJP legislator Pankaj Singh, TMC lawmaker Derek O’Brien, Apna Dal lawmaker Anupriya Patel and the Congress leader Jitin Prasada, also went into self-quarantine.
The district administration has ordered the closure of all offices in several areas of the city, including parts of Mahanagar, Indira Nagar, Khurram Nagar, Aliganj and Gudamba till March 23. Kanika Kapoor’s apartment building – Shalimar Gallant — is located in Mahanagar.
Later, district magistrate Abhishek Prakash ordered all food joints, restaurants, roadside eateries and cafes in Lucknow to close shop till March 31. He also ordered a temporary closure of Taj Hotel as Kanika had briefly stayed there.
Kanika Kapoor had returned from London to Mumbai on March 9 and came to Lucknow on March 11 to her home in the apartment building here.
A senior police officer confirmed that Kanika attended back-to-back parties from March 13 to 15, stayed at the top hotel from March 14 to 16 and then returned to her apartment building.
The health department quickly prepared a list of people who had attended the parties, including the minister, bureaucrats, police officers and industrialists.
“We have a primary list of 23 people who came in close contact with her. It may be expanded further,” said director general, medical health, Dr Rukesh Singh. But he did not share the list.
“We are first tracking those who came in direct contact with Kanika. If any of those (the direct contacts) test positive, we will also track their close contacts,” said Yogesh Raghuvanshi, spokesperson of the district health department.
Dr Sudhir Singh, the spokesperson of King George’s Medical University (KGMU), said the hospital tested 70 samples of which four, including that of the Bollywood singer, tested positive and the remaining were negative.
