‘Divergent views’ in Haryana on sealing, UP to decide by today

GURUGRAM: The Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments will have to review the sealing of their borders with Delhi after the Centre’s decision to remove restrictions on inter-state movement and the system of passes introduced by cities like Noida, Gurugram, and lately Ghaziabad, in its latest relaxations of the lockdown.
While government sources in Lucknow said UP will come out with a decision by Sunday, a Haryana government source said there were “divergent views” on whether to relax or retain the stringent border checks because of Covid-19 cases suddenly rising in Gurugram.
Talking to TOI, a senior officer in the Manohar Lal Khattar government said that while there was no doubt that Gurugram had emerged as a concern, keeping the border restrictions was not practical because the fresh relaxations will only further increase traffic between Delhi and Gurugram.
“We have done all we could in preventing the spread of Covid-19. But this is the time for the community to emerge. How long can you stop movement of people? The community has to come together and take steps to prevent the spread, like having staggered timings, encourage their staff to work from home, etc. The border restriction should be removed but the final decision will be taken by the district magistrate (deputy commissioner),” the senior government officer said. Deputy commissioner Amit Khatri said that he had yet to make a decision. “Let us see what happens,” Khatri said.
Though the Centre released a comprehensive plan for a reopening of India, just like in all phases of the lockdown, it left it to the states to decide what to implement and what not to, based on their assessment of the Covid-19 threat.
Haryana government sources said a section of the bureaucracy was strongly in favour of removing border restrictions, with the economy in mind, but a section of politicians were not. “With shopping malls, hotels and restaurants likely to open from June 8, it would make sense to open the Delhi-Gurugram border,” said a source.
Orders to seal the Haryana borders with Delhi were issued twice this month by the state’s home and health minister Anil Vij. Despite repeated attempts, Vij could not be contacted for a comment.
Officers in Lucknow said the UP government will be issuing its own detailed guidelines on the relaxations that will kick in from June 1 on Sunday. A senior officer said UP’s rules would be in accordance with the central guidelines, though district administrations are likely to still have the prerogative to enforce a stricter version of the lockdown in their areas, depending on the severity of the Covid-19 spread.
Just like at the Gurugram border, sealing of the Noida border has led to traffic jams every day and complaints from offices that are unable to call their staff from Delhi. But the Noida administration has held out, even preparing a report that it submitted to the Supreme Court on why the border restrictions must continue.
However, with the economy opening up further in a week’s time and public transport still off bounds, traffic volume across the border is expected to surge and keeping the same checks at the border could become impractical.
(Additional reporting by our bureau in Lucknow)