Lucknow, Apr 5 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday evening interacted with about 376 religious leaders through video conferencing and urged them to ensure that there were no big gatherings of their community.

The Chief Minister appealed to the religious leaders to cooperate with the government in ensuring the lockdown and maintaining social distancing.

"We need to make the people aware about improving their lifestyle and ignoring immediate benefits. We did not allow people to collect on Ram Navmi and I expect you to do the same on other festivals," he said.

He urged Muslim clerics to ask people in the community to celebrate Shab-e-Baraat at home and not to collect in groups.

The Chief Minister said that disease does not differentiate on basis of religion or caste.

He said that social distancing will be continued even after the lockdown is lifted.

The religious leaders in the video conferencing belonged to all religions and represented all districts in the state.