The Uttar Pradesh government has banned strikes across the state for six months ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. This is not the first time, a similar order was issued in May this year, where the strike was banned for six months in view of the coronavirus pandemic, Essential Services Maintenance Act or ESMA.
This notice was issued by Additional Chief Secretary Dr Devesh Kumar Chaturvedi on Sunday 19 December. The order said that all strikes including public service, corporations and local authorities dealing with the affairs of the state would be banned and those violating the order would be punished and legal action would be taken against them.
The ESMA Act basically allows the state government to take action against employees who refuse to comply with the rules and go on strike affecting essential services. Imprisonment up to one year or fine of one thousand rupees or both.
On Sunday, 23 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Uttar Pradesh.
Dr Abhishek Shukla, Secretary General, Association of International Doctors said, “The test positivity rate (TPR) was 0.012% in the last 24 hours, in which a total of 1,88,560 samples were tested (in 24 hours) and 23 of them were found to be COVID positive. ,
As per the state data, 189 active COVID-19 cases were reported on Saturday and 164 cases were registered on Friday.