Yogi interacts with 377 religious leaders, says no community gathering shall be allowed

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday interacted with 377 religious leaders in all 75 districts in the state through video conferencing and urged them to ensure that people of their community maintain social gathering and do not gather in large numbers anywhere.

Appealing to the religious leaders to ensure the lockdown and maintain social distancing, the Chief Minister said: "All religious and political programmes in our country were postponed during the lockdown. The success of the 21-day lockdown will depend on the adherence to social distancing in the coming days."

He stressed the efforts taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to combat COVID-19 menace including welfare and insurance packages to people.

The Chief Minister said that India is at the top among other countries in the world in handling the COVID-19 crisis in an effective manner.

Speaking about the facilities being arranged for citizens in the state, he said: "Everyone has been instructed to give full salary to all. Over 8.37 crore different categories of poor are being given free ration. For those who do not have a ration card, who are destitute, instructions have also been given to District Magistrates."

With 472 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country has gone up to 3,577, said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday.