AMN / WEB DESK
States and Union Territories have announced fresh guidelines for the fourth phase of lockdown giving several concessions to boost economic activity
DELHI
Delhi government has announced certain relaxations in the fourth phase of coronavirus lockdown. It has allowed buses, cars, autos, and E-rikshaws to ply across the national capital from today.
Briefing media, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, government and Private offices can open at full strength. He said, no activities will be allowed in the containment zones except essential services. Mr Kejriwal said, stepping out of homes between 7 PM to 7 AM except for essential services will be prohibited in the city.
He said that wearing masks and maintaining social distancing is mandatory for all. Marriages will be allowed with a maximum of 50 people, and funerals will be allowed with a maximum of 20 people. Restaurants can open for home-delivery but dining facilities will not be permitted.
The lockdown has been extended in the national capital till 31st May with a slew of relaxations. Buses will ply on the roads with not more than 20 passengers. The screening of each passenger will be done before boarding the bus. Movement of private vehicles will be allowed with not more than two passengers in a four-wheeler vehicle and not more than one rider on a two-wheeler vehicle.
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh Government has announced new guidelines to be followed in the state about the lockdown which has been extended till 31st of May. The new guidelines issued by Chief Secretary R K Tiwari permits all the factories, industrial activities and shops to open except for red and containment zones. However, street vendors and hawkers have been permitted to function in the state.
Section 144 will be in force during night in state and no vehicle barring essential services will be allowed to move in night. As per the order Private vehicles have been permitted to move across the state. Two-wheelers with no person on the rear seat are allowed. Though, females can sit behind the two-wheeler driver. Four-wheelers and autorickshaws have been permitted. Auto-rickshaw can seat two people at a time excluding the driver.
Only two people have been allowed to sit in a four-wheeler apart from the driver. Only two children to get additional permission. As per the order Operation of inter-state buses with the consent of the states will not be allowed at present. Separate orders will be issued for this later. Marriage halls have been permitted but only with a gathering of not more than 20 people. As per the guidelines markets in cities will open at different locations on different days. Decision will be taken at district level. The vegetable markets or Mandis will be opened for three hours from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. Only in rural areas weekly Mandis have been allowed to open.
Madhya Pradesh
In Madhya Pradesh, the Orange Zone category has been abolished and now all the districts have been divided into two zones Red and Green during the lockdown 4.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, while addressing the public yesterday, said that this decision has been taken as per the suggestions received from the people of all sections of the society and Crisis Management groups of the districts.
However, special restrictions of the Ministry of Home Affairs will continue in all the containment areas.
Ten cities including Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal and Jabalpur have been kept under the Red Zone. All restrictions will continue in the containment areas of these cities and only emergency activities will be allowed.
At the same time, all types of activities will be allowed in 42 districts of Green Zone except for restricted activities. All shops, vegetable markets, private and government offices will run at full capacity and movement by private vehicles are also allowed.
However, every zone certainly have to take some precautions like wearing masks in public places and workplace is mandatory, spitting will be fined and physical distancing should be followed.
The movement of people from 7pm to 7am will be restricted in all zones except for emergency activities.
Gujarat
In Gujarat, the guidelines for Lockdown 4 will be enforced from today. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani yesterday announced the new guidelines for the state which are based on containment and non-containment zones.
Only essential services will be permitted in containment zones and movement of people including government officials is restricted from containment zones whereas resumption of shops and offices, industries and the transport was announced for areas outside the containment zone. Market area, shopping complexes in the non-containment zones will be resumed based on an odd-even formula of their shop numbers which also include textiles markets of Surat.
As far as non-containment zones are concerned, Auto Rickshaw services, with not more than 2 passengers, will be resumed across the state except for Ahmedabad and Surat. S.T buses will resume in the whole state except for Ahmedabad City. Private cars, cabs, taxis have also been allowed to resume services with limited seats except for Eastern Ahmedabad. Shops can be opened from 8 am to 4 pm in all non-containment zones. Paan shops will also resume outside containment zones.
However, they shall only provide take away orders. Hair salon, beauty parlours, barber shops will also resume in accordance with safety protocols. Restaurants were allowed to provide home deliveries only provided their staff has a health card issued by the authorities. Private offices with 33% staff to resume except for East Ahmedabad. Diamond units, weaving units and power looms will also resume business with 50% staff and adequate safety measures. No relaxations have been granted for Eastern Ahmedabad.
Meanwhile, the number of positive cases in the state rose to 11, 746 with 366 fresh cases reported yesterday.
BIHAR
Bihar government has issued fresh guidelines for the fourth phase of lockdown. The state government has issued guidelines with more relaxations for boost economic activities.
The concerned DMs will decide to open the shops on a rotation basis for crowd management.
The government has declared all the block headquarter towns as red zones. This decision was taken in view of the large number of migrant workers returning to the state and many of them kept in the quarantine centres at the headquarters of various blocks testing positive for Covid 19.
RAJASTHAN
In Rajasthan, with 122 new persons tested potitive for COVID- 19 today, the total number of infected people in the state has gone up to 5,629. So far, 139 people have died due to Corona infection in the state. Our correspondent reports that after several relaxation announced under Lockdown 4.0, all kinds of shops and markets are being opened and business activities are to resume.
After the new guidelines for Lockdown 4.0, markets have opened in most of the cities of the state except the Containment Zones. Traffic on the roads has also been increased. However, all the cities and Panchayat Samitis of 13 districts of the state have been declared as Red Zones.
There are still be many types of restrictions. Transport Department has stepped up the exercise of starting public transport services within the state and for other states too. The resumption of work in big and small industries also has made the way for thousands of workers to get jobs. It is to hope that the process of migration of migrant workers will also stanch in the coming days.