NEW DELHI: A majority of the Delhiites want lockdown restrictions lifted with proper safeguards in place, suggest the responses received by the Delhi government, said CM Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Kejriwal had sought suggestions from Delhiites on lockdown relaxations post May 17 and asked them to send their views by 5 pm on Wednesday. The AAP government received more than five lakh responses, including around 4,75,000 messages on WhatsApp, 10,700 e-mails, and 49,000 calls.
"Every suggestion that I saw says that senior citizens and people with other serious ailments, such as heart problems, asthma, diabetes, cancer, are exposed to higher risk and should stay indoors, including children below 10 years of age and pregnant women. Everyone has suggested that proper social distancing must be ensured, and strict fines must be imposed on those not wearing masks. People have suggested the opening of parks for increasing immunity," he said.
For the past one week, Delhi government has commenced an awareness drive explaining the precautions needed to be taken by people when they are out, huge hoardings advertising these measures are put up across the national capital.
Sharing some of the suggestions that have come in from the public, Kejriwal said,"A lot of people have asked the logic and explanation behind not going out after 7 pm, as they are of the view that the timeline should be relaxed."
This is not the first time that AAP government has gone for a public referendum on a policy decision, earlier it consulted the people of Delhi on implementing the odd-even road rationing scheme. Some suggestions were in favour of closure of hotels, but most of them advocated opening of restaurants for home-delivery of food and take-away facility, he added.