Curfew in 2 Ahmedabad areas till Apr 21 to contain COVID-19

A week-long curfew will be imposed in Old City nd Danilimbda areas of Ahmedabad from 6 am on Wednesday to contain the spread of coronavirus, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced on Tuesday.

The curfew in the two localities, which have a large minority community population, will continue till 6 am on April 21, he said in a video message.

However, there will be relaxations for a few hours everyday to allow residents to buy food items and essential commodities.

For an effective implementation of the curfew, over 2,100 uniformed men from local police and para-military forces will be deployed in both the areas, said Ahmedabad police commissioner Ashish Bhatia.

Several COVID-19 cases have been reported from Old City (walled city) and Danilimbda.

Before making the announcement, Rupani held a meeting with Congress MLAs Gyasuddin Sheikh, Imran Khedawala and Shailesh Parmar who represent assembly constituencies falling in the two localities.

Gujarat has so far recorded 650 COVID-19 cases, a bulk of them from Ahmedabad city.

"Ahmedabad city has over 350 cases and many of them have come from the Fort area (Old City). We have decided to impose curfew in the Fort and Danilimbda areas from Wednesday morning," Rupani said in a video on Facebook.

"These areas have many (infection) hotspots. Nobody should come out of their houses in these two areas for the next few days. Police will ensure strict implementation of the curfew," he added.

"Our health department team will work hard to contain the spread of COVID-19 in these areas in the next few days and everybody should cooperate with it," he said.

People of the two localities will not face any problem in getting essential commodities, the chief minister assured.

"We will relax curfew from 1 pm to 4 pm everyday when essential items such as milk, vegetables, groceries or medicines can be bought.

"But only women will be allowed to venture out during the period of relaxation," he said.

The CM welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to extend the nationwide coronavirus-enforced lockdown till May 3.

"The lockdown will be strictly observed in the entire state till May 3 to defeat coronavirus. I urge people to cooperate with the state administration in implementation of the lockdown as they have done in the last 21 days," he said.

Addressing the media in Gandhinagar, Bhatia said the curfew will be clamped in localities falling under the jurisdiction of Shahpur, Karanj, Kalupur, Khadia, Gaekwad- Haveli, Dariyapur police stations of walled city and Danilimda police station.

"For effective enforcement of the curfew, we have created 374 check-points and deployed 159 police vans to keep a watch on people's movement.

"We have also called in the BSF and the Rapid Action Force. In total, 2,158 uniformed men from local police and para-military will be deployed in those areas," Bhatia said.