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Kerala retracts additional relaxations after MHA rap
The concessions allowed restaurants, salons, workshops and bookshops to open as well as private vehicles with three persons on board and intrastate buses to ply.
Kerala on Monday withdrew the additional concessions it had announced to ease the Covid-19 lockdown a day earlier after the Centre toughened its position, saying these measures violated the federal directive for strict implementation of the curbs until May 3.
The concessions allowed restaurants, salons, workshops and bookshops to open as well as private vehicles with three persons on board and intrastate buses to ply. The private vehicles were permitted to move as per odd-even scheme based on their license plates. Medium and small scale enterprises in municipal limits were also allowed to function.
“Such additional activities allowed by government of Kerala amount to dilution of guidelines issued by [Union] MHA [ministry of home affairs] and violation of MHA order dated 15 April 2020 issued under Disaster Management Act 2005. I would urge you to rectify the guidelines of the Government of Kerala in line with the consolidated revised guidelines without any dilution and ensure strict compliance of lockdown measures,” Union home secretary Ajya Bhalla said in a letter to Kerala chief secretary Tom Jose on Sunday.
The Centre cited a Supreme Court directive asking states to abide by federal directions in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, the Union government issued the guidelines and allowed activities like conditional reopening of industries in rural areas outside the Covid-19 containment areas as part of attempts to gradually restart the economy from Monday. The guidelines were issued a day after the Centre extended the 21-day lockdown imposed to check the spread of Covid-19 until May 3.
Kerala, which reported the first Covid-19 case in India in January and was the worst-hit state by the pandemic early last month, has reported a slump in the Covid-19 cases while they mount across the country. Over half of Kerala’s total 408 Covid-19 patients as of Monday, or 286, have recovered and been discharged from hospitals. The state has reported three Covid-19 related fatalities. Out of Kerala’s 14 districts, 10 are either orange with 32 cases or green zones with no cases. There are 55,590 people under observation in the state. The additional concessions were applicable in green and orange zones from Monday.
The state government initially defended its decision to allow additional concessions saying the Centre was informed about them. But later Kerala minister Kadakmpally Surendranit said there was some communication gap as the state government amended its order on the relaxations and brought it in line with the national lockdown guidelines issued last week.
“The Centre and the state have the same stand with regard to the fight against the pandemic. There is no contradiction in the stand taken. It was just a misunderstanding...,” he said.
Union minister V Muraleedhran earlier criticised the state government’s move. “Overconfidence is not good. It is not the time to announce such concessions,” he wrote on Facebook.
In a letter to all states and Union territories on Sunday, Bhalla sought compliance with the revised consolidated guidelines while citing reports that additional activities were being allowed in certain regions.
He added the states and Union territories can even impose stricter guidelines if they want, but there can be no dilution to the Centre’s consolidated national guidelines.
