Work from home, stay off protests, social media debates on CAA: MNCs tell employees

Anti-citizenship law protests in Delhi impacted citizens in Gurgaon and Noida too on Thursday, where several companies asked their employees to work from home and cautioned against joining demonstrations.

While prohibitory orders under CrPC section 144 were in place in Uttar Pradesh's Noida, a massive traffic snarl trapped thousands of commuters on NH-48, the Gurgaon-Delhi road. Some of the multinational companies in Gurgaon asked their employees to remain vigilant when venturing out and cautioned them against engaging in social media debates and demonstrations, employees of multiple firms told PTI on condition of anonymity.

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"Any debate on social media could be perceived as inflammatory and sensitive by any person amid this raging issue around the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). We have also been advised against joining demonstrations," an MNC employee said.

Around 11 am, some companies in Noida emailed their staffers who were either on their way to work or about to leave for work to rather stay home and work from there.

"Those already in office have been told to carefully plan the journey back to homes and advised to postpone it till evening. Those who began work late in sync with American timings have been asked to not come to the office," a software engineer told PTI requesting anonymity.

The Delhi Police earlier on Thursday barricaded the major roads to the national capital and began security checks, leading to congestion and slowing down of the traffic on the Chilla route in Noida, according to officials. Police officials stood guard on the Kalindi Kunj road, which connects Noida with south Delhi and remained closed for vehicular movement after diversion was made on the route in the wake of the violent protests at Jamia Milia Islamia.

Traffic-wise, the situation was worse in Gurgaon where thousands of vehicles were stuck on the National Highway 48 and even on the roads in the DLF Cyber City, with several pictures of the sluggish traffic movement surfacing on social media in the afternoon. Gurgaon and Noida, the two satellite towns of Delhi, are home to thousands of Indian and multinational companies with a workforce in lakhs.

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