Goa to allow malls, restaurants to reopen in tune with Central guidelines: CM Sawant
The central government which granted relaxations in a fresh set of guidelines that will be effective this week onwards has allowed for the reopening of restaurants, malls as well as places of worship from June 8 onwards.
The Goa government will grant all relaxations as permitted by the Centre as part of Unlock -1, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday.
The central government which granted relaxations in a fresh set of guidelines that will be effective this week onwards has allowed for the reopening of restaurants, malls as well as places of worship from June 8 onwards.
“All activities which have been allowed by the central government will be allowed in Goa too, but in Goa we may take some other steps too. We will finalise the decision by Monday evening if some other relaxations need to be given,” Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said.
Goa being a ‘green zone’ state with all the recent cases of Covid-19 being detected among those who are entering the state, already enjoys considerable relaxations including the reopening of markets, public transport, shops and private offices.
Ahead of the end of the fourth phase of the lockdown, the Goa Chief Minister had raised the issue of the reopening of restaurants and malls.
“Most activities have started in Goa except for restaurants, hotels, malls, gyms. We believe that at least restaurants, malls and gyms should start with social distancing norms,” Sawant had said.
The Goa government has already relaxed curfew norms allowing people to remain out of their homes up to 9 pm except for the movement of goods and essential services.
“The night curfew period has been relaxed a bit as per the new guidelines. Goa will stick to the new timings and we will try to enforce this curfew at border check posts to ensure that our team can handle the flow of incoming people,” Revenue Secretary Sanjay Kumar had said at a press conference on Sunday.