Curbs on Delhi’s borders with Noida, Ghaziabad to continue

The restrictions in place at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border will continue in the two NCR districts of Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar till further orders, the administrations of both districts stated on Wednesday. The district administration of both the districts had put restrictions on movement of commuters to Delhi and back in April to contain the spread of Covid-19 cases.

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Under the restrictions in place, only those involved in providing essential services are at present allowed to freely cross the border into Delhi. Everyone else need to obtain and produce valid passes issued by district administration , authorisation letters from their offices or in cases of certain individuals show valid identification cards in order to cross.

Uttar Pradesh chief secretary, RK Tiwari, late on Tuesday night had rolled out Unlock 2.0 directions for the state. Under the new guidelines, no intra-state or inter-state restriction on movement of persons or goods/commodities was to be permitted between Noida/ Ghaziabad and Delhi. The new guidelines also clarified that activities outside containment zones can be restricted on the basis of evaluation at the local level.

The rules also authorised officials of the NCR districts of Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad to review the border situation at a later date and take a call accordingly.

“As per the directions, we have asked police and health department officials to submit their views and they have been requested to submit a fresh assessment report. We have their previous recommendation and the status quo will continue till we get fresh data from them,” said Suhas LY, district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar.

“The last assessment had said that cross-border infection was continuing. The status quo will be maintained if the current assessment reports too state the same things,” he warned.

Gautam Budh Nagar shares its borders with Delhi at DND flyway, Mayur Vihar, Kalindi Kunj, Jhundpura and Kondli areas.

“The border restrictions are in place and we take up regular checks,” said Ranvijay Singh, Noida’s additional DCP.

The district administration officials of Ghaziabad too said that the ongoing restriction will continue under Unlock 2.0 till July 31.

“We will continue with the present border curbs till July 31 or till further orders. The restriction at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border will continue and no relaxation is to be provided as of now,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate Ghaziabad.

The Ghaziabad authorities too had in two orders — issued on April 20 and May 25 — issued directions for strict sealing and checking at borders with Delhi in the wake of rising number of Covid-19 cases resulting from cross-border travel.

Ghaziabad shares several border crossings with Delhi at UP-Gate, Anand Vihar-Kaushambi, Seemapuri and in areas of Loni.

“During the initial days when restriction were put in place, there were routine jams at the border as regular checking was taken up during peak hours. But for the last fortnight, the traffic flow has been smooth as cops resort to random checks. Even the broken patch of Delhi-Meerut Expressway near UP-Gate has been repaired. So, commuting is smooth nowadays,” said Kuldeep Saxena, a resident of Shakti Khand in Indirapuram and a daily commuter to Delhi.

The Ghaziabad police said that they are continuing with checks with restrictions in place at Delhi-UP border.

“Random checking is in place and barricades are also put up . Nowadays, there is no issue of traffic jam at border,” said Manish Mishra, superintendent of police (city), Ghaziabad.

Earlier in June, while hearing a petition, a three judge bench of the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to convene a meeting of officials from the three states of NCR within a week and come up with a common portal to facilitate interstate travel between Delhi and Noida or Delhi and Gurugram.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a Gurugram resident who had challenged sealing of borders with Delhi by the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments.

Later, the Uttar Pradesh government on June 12 had told the Apex court that restrictions between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi will continue to remain in place considering the spike in Covid-19 infection.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on June 16 had suggested a uniform policy for NCR to effectively check the spread of Covid-19. He had also favoured sealing Uttar Pradesh’s borders with Delhi to regulate the movement of traffic. The CM had made these suggestions during PM Modi’s video-conferencing meet with chief ministers of different states.

Later on June 18, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a video-conferencing meeting with senior officials of Delhi-NCR for a review of Covid-19 situation in region and told officials that entire NCR should be considered as a unit in the fight against Coronavirus.