Lucknow Braces for Christmas Sans Internet as Orders Issued for Shutdown, Food Delivery & Cab Services Hit

Chai65

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posted on 4 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Lucknow District Magistrate issued fresh orders to continue the mobile internet shutdown till 8 pm on December 25, the day when PM Modi will be visiting the city to unveil the bronze statue of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Lucknow: A 34-year-old entrepreneur from Lucknow's Indira Nagar, Rahul has invested a substantial sum in cakes and other items for his newly-opened bakery for Christmas. He is now worried if he will be able to meet his sales target because of the continued clampdown on internet services for a fourth consecutive day in the Uttar Pradesh capital.

Several others in Lucknow are worried that sales over online food delivery platforms will be hit on Christmas after the Lucknow District Magistrate issued fresh orders to continue the mobile internet shutdown till 8 pm on December 25.

This is also the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the city to unveil a bronze statue of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Apart from online delivery platforms, most of the 3,000 cab drivers using online aggregators have stop plying. Himanshu Gupta, a resident of Gomti Nagar area of Lucknow, had an early-morning flight and was confident he would reach the airport using an online taxi service. He finally had to reschedule his flight because of internet shutdown.

“I had an early morning flight on December 20 and was sure of getting a cab at around 5 am. But to my surprise when I woke up, the cab service was not working as the internet was shut down late on December 19. I finally had to reschedule my flight, resulting in me losing money as well,” he said.

The government shut down mobile internet in Lucknow on the evening of December 19 as a precautionary measure after protests against the Citizenship Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizen (NRC) turned violent. Vehicles were set ablaze and a person was shot and killed in the protests.

The curb on the internet has also made it difficult to purchase tickets for movies and railways. People are not dependent on WiFi hotspots for their work.

Earlier, the UP Subordinate Services Selection Commission had postponed the exam for Junior Assistants and Computer Operators, which had been scheduled for December 24 and 26. The exam will now take place on January 4 and 10. The authorities said that the exams were rescheduled as candidates across the state were unable to download their admit cards due to the internet curbs.