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States relax some curbs as lockdown nears deadline
The new travel guideline also made a 14-day quarantine mandatory for any person entering the state. The guidelines also allowed district officers to give permission to run industries.
Rajasthan became the first state to allow free movement of people within the state between 7 am and 7 pm, except in containment zones, as states began relaxing norms a week before the third phase of the federal lockdown draws towards its scheduled end on May 17.
“No pass will be required for interdistrict and within district movement of people between 7 am and 7 pm except in areas under curfew,” announced chief minister Ashok Gehlot after a meeting with legislators and members of Parliament.
Gehlot authorised the district and subordinate officers to issue passes to people to travel by bus or train to other states and containment zones. Earlier, the state home department had this power. The new travel guideline also made a 14 day quarantine mandatory for any person entering the state. The guidelines also allowed district officers to give permission to run industries.
While the Telangana government has extended the lockdown till May 29, it has given additional relaxations for private companies and industries located in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area, a red zone. They resumed operations on Monday.
Cyberabad Commissioner of Police, VC Sajjannar, told industry owners have been allowed to use 33% of the manpower in a phased manner. “And this 33% of strength is across all shifts, including critical operations, during night hours, contract staff etc,” he said.
In Gujarat, the government decided to make the delivery of essential goods to home cashless from May 15, the first state to do so. “As a part of preparation strategy post lockdown, all retails and home deliveries agencies have been asked to get 100% screening of the staff. Those who get their staff screened would be able to run their operations without any hassle,” said an official order.
The order also said that just to be abundantly cautious about the spread of the pandemic through currency notes, it has been made mandatory to accept digital mode of payment through unified payment interface and other platforms from May 15. So far, Gujarat has nearly 7,000 Covid-19 positive cases.
In Uttarakhand, the government has allowed shops to function between 7 am and 4 pm, an extra three hours from this week. Government spokesperson and minister, Madan Kaushik, said, “We have increased the time limit of the opening of shops from 7 am to 4 pm in the state and more industries have been allowed to start operations.”
However, Kerala, which has seen a new spurt of cases with expats returning, has decided against any relaxation for the time being. With train services also resuming, it expects more cases. Last Sunday it observed a complete shutdown, a symbolic move to strengthen its ongoing fight against the virus.
In Rajasthan, a majority of MPs and MLAs welcomed the chief minister’s decision to bring stranded workers to their homes. The lawmakers suggested that additional trains and buses be arranged for them. They asked to simplify the pass process, arrange institutional quarantine for the people coming from other places to the village school or panchayat building and adding the names of new labourers to the MGNREGA list.
On the demand of MPs and MLAs to remove the farmers’ welfare fee on purchases in agricultural markets, Gehlot said that the fee has not been imposed on the farmers but on the traders. The meeting was attended by speaker, Dr CP Joshi, former CM, Vasundhara Raje, leader of the opposition, Gulabchand Kataria, deputy leader of the opposition, Rajendra Rathore, and former Union minister, PP Chaudhary.
