Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), Dec 15 (IANS): The Allahabad High Court has directed the police administration of Lucknow, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad and Meerut to submit names of the police personnel deployed on roads to ensure that all commuters wear masks.

The court issued the order after the Lucknow District Magistrate, in his affidavit, said that two police personnel were deployed on every two km stretch of all roads.

Hearing a PIL on Covid-19, a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar said, "From the affidavit of compliance filed by district magistrate, Lucknow, it appears that almost 300 people are getting infected every day. Though we appreciate the sincere efforts of the police administration, we find a lot more is needed to be done and it cannot be said that things are now under control. Further efforts should be made for restricting the spread of Covid-19."

The court further stated, "Even though the additional advocate general stated that testing was also increasing every day, we found the number of infected persons was increasing. We find tracking was not being done properly. In Lucknow, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad and Meerut, the number of infected persons should be coming down and this can happen only if proper tracking takes place. Proper policing is required to be done to see everyone is wearing masks."

In addition to this, the court directed the district administrations of Lucknow, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad and Meerut to see that no food is consumed in the open in these districts.

"The restaurant/eateries/street vendors may be allowed to sell their edible items only in closed packets," the court directed.

Appreciating the steps taken by the district administration of Prayagraj for checking the spread of Covid-19, the court observed, "It is something to be appreciated that in Prayagraj only because of proper policing, residents of Prayagraj wore masks and the number of persons getting infected with Covid-19 has come down remarkably."

Earlier on December 3, the court had taken a serious note of the rise in Covid-19 cases in Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Meerut and Kanpur Nagar and had directed their administration and police heads to file their respective affidavits mentioning the steps they were taking to restrain the hike in such cases.

In pursuance of the said directive, the affidavit of compliance was filed by the Commissioner of Police, Lucknow, district magistrate, Lucknow, Commissioner of Police, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Senior Superintendent of Police, Meerut.