Noida should follow suit, opine residents after Delhi goes under six-day lockdown
Noida, 19th April: Delhi govt today announced a six-day lockdown in the city, from 10 pm tonight to Monday morning, in view of the Covid situation becoming more deadly with each passing day.
Delhi’s lockdown is expected to bring a slight relief to the intertwined cities including Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad, Greater Noida, as the intercity movement between Delhi and all of these cities will come down during the six-day lockdown period.
But the key question is: Will it be enough?
Noida, like most of the other metro cities in the country has been undergoing a deadly second wave of the infection, recording over 400 cases daily from last 5 days or so.
The record-breaking rise of Covid in the city has put the health infrastructure under severe stress, causing acute shortage of Covid beds, oxygen, plasma and Covid drugs. The citizens are left to deal with plethora of challenges including delay in RT-PCR test report, finding hospitals with Covid beds available and more. With so many loopholes in the system, the Covid patients and their loved ones are bound to suffer.
Is lockdown a solution?
It’s a contentious question with no straightforward answers, but the lockdown in Delhi seems to have invoked the mood for lockdown among the citizens of Noida.
One sector 78 resident, Sachin, said, “With current situation..people crying all over for bed / medicine / injection / testing…it is the only solution otherwise things will be out of control.”
Another resident, D.P Singh, said, “The Noida is more a part of Delhi than U. P. for all practical purposes. The movement of manpower between the two is inseparable. It will be wise to follow suit, not only for Noida but Faridabad, Gurgaon and other satellite townships as well.”
Noida Stellar Greens resident Shankar Kapoor pointed out that most of the labour in Noida come from areas like Kondli, Ashok Nagar, Tirlok Puri and Kalyan Puri, hinting that if there’s a lockdown in Delhi then imposing a lockdown in Noida is logical because the industry in Noida cannot operate anyway without the labour coming from Delhi.
