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Don’t use Covid-19 lockdown rules to harass industry: Centre tells states, UTs
There was no clause in April 15’s revised guidelines under which states could take legal action, including the imprisonment of the CEO of a company, or the sealing or closure of a factory for two days in case a Covid-19-positive employee was found, said Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla.
The Union home ministry on Thursday told all states and Union Territories that the revised guidelines related to the extended lockdown period over coronavirus disease (Covid-19) should not be misused to harass the management of any manufacturing or commercial establishment.
The government also said that the enforcement of the second phase of the lockdown was “satisfactory” across the country except for a few sporadic incidents and “economic activity had picked up the pace, especially in rural areas”.
Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla said in the letter that there was no clause in April 15’s revised guidelines under which states could take legal action, including the imprisonment of the CEO of a company, or the sealing or closure of a factory for two days in case a Covid-19-positive employee was found. The letter said that these apprehensions were “based on wrong interpretation of the guidelines”.
“I would like to clarify that there is no such clause in the consolidated revised guidelines and therefore there is no basis for such misplaced apprehensions,” Bhalla’s letter read.
Several companies had raised concerns regarding penal action they were likely to face over restarting activities. They also asked the government if they had to take fresh permissions or licences to begin work.
Bhalla clarified that “the consolidated revised guidelines do not curtail the exemptions already provided earlier, unless the exempted activity falls within a containment zone. Therefore no fresh/separate permissions are required from authorities for industries already permitted to operate prior to April 15, 2020, in areas falling outside containment zones”.
“Finally, it is emphasized that subject to compliance of standard operating procedure (SOP) on social distancing, no fresh license or statutory approval is required for resumption of permitted activities during the lockdown period. For example, an industry activity, allowed to operate prior to lockdown, needs no fresh approval, once it has been included as a permitted activity under the consolidated revised guidelines, and has complied with the SOP on social distancing,” he added.
The home secretary asked states to inform their industrial field establishments and field offices, and that guidelines should not be misused to harass the management of any industry.
Earlier in the day, Bhalla and secretary of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Guruprasad Mohapatra, reviewed the measures to “speed up” economic and industrial activities via a video-conference with the industry associations.
During the daily news briefing, home ministry joint secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said that the video-conference was held between representatives of the associations and the two secretaries about industrial activities since April 20, when the government announced conditional easing of lockdown restrictions to revive economy activity. Feedback has been sought from industrial units and problems, if any, will be resolved soon, she added.
Road construction, brick kilns and cement manufacturing-related works have started in rural areas, Srivastava said. “Till April 22, over 1.5 crore workdays have been achieved under the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act),” she added.
The state governments are working to operationalise industrial units in non-hot spot zones as the central government has given permission for exempting many essential services from April 20, the joint secretary said. Food processing units, milk and bread processing factories, flour, and pulses mills have been exempted, she said.
