Bengaluru : The Karnataka government on Thursday withdrew the night curfew order, hours before its implementation. In a statement, chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s office said that the decision has been taken after feedback from public.

The night curfew was meant to be imposed in the state between 11 pm and 5 am, effective from December 24. It was supposed to be in place till January 2. The decision to impose it was taken on Wednesday and withdrawn today.

The government decided to imposed the night curfew in the light of a new variant of Sars-CoV-2 virus detected in the United Kingdom. The government had even issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the night curfew.

Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar had said earlier in the day that the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) had advised the government about imposing a night curfew after which the decision was taken.

On the possibility of a new variant of coronavirus coming to Karnataka, the minister said the lab test reports of about 300 to 400 people was likely to arrive on Thursday.

Some other states are going ahead with their decision to impose a night curfew to check the spread of the disease. Maharashtra was one of the first states to do so after the news of the new strain of the virus surfaced.

Iqbal Singh Chahal, the commissioner of Mumbai’s civic body BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said, “This is not a normal new year which is why we cannot have normal celebrations. The curfew is being imposed to ensure that such violations are not repeated”.

Punjab, Manipur, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are the other states where night curfew and other measures are being implemented to ensure the people of the state remain safe.