New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday issued guidelines for zones where coronavirus curbs could be relaxed slightly after April 20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, a day earlier, said that based on extensive scrutiny, conditional withdrawal of the lockdown will be permitted in areas where the spread has either been contained or prevented.
The Centre's guidelines for the zones are as follows:
To mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities will be allowed, which will come into effect from 20th April, 2020. However, these additional activities will be operationalised by States/Union Territories (UTs)/District Administrations based on strict compliance to the existing guidelines on lockdown measures, the order reads.
Before operating these relaxations, States/ UTs/ District Administrations shall ensure that all preparatory arrangements with regard to social distancing in offices, workplaces, factories and establishments, as also other sectoral requirements are in place.
All health services (including AYUSH) to remain functional, such as:
1) Hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, telemedicine facilities.
2) Dispensaries, chemists, pharmacies, all kinds of medicine shops, including Jan Aushadhi Kendras and medical equipment shops.
3) Medical laboratories and collection centres.
4) Pharmaceutical and medical research labs, institutions carrying out Covid-19 related research.
5) Veterinary Hospitals, dispensaries, clinics, pathology labs, sale and supply of vaccine and medicine.
6) Authorised private establishments, which support the provisioning of essential services, or efforts for containment of Covid-19, including home care providers, diagnostics, supply chain firms serving hospitals.
7) Manufacturing units of drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical oxygen, their packaging material, raw material and intermediates.
8) Construction of medical/health infrastructure, including manufacture of ambulances.
9) Movement (inter and intra State, including by air) of all medical and veterinary personnel, scientists, nurses, para-medical staff, lab technicians, mid-wives and other hospital support services, including ambulances.
Agricultural and related activities:
A. All agricultural and horticultural activities to remain fully functional, such as:
i. Farming operations by farmers and farm workers in field.
ii. Agencies engaged in procurement of agriculture products, including MSP operations.
iii. 'Mandis' operated by the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) or as notified by the State/ UT Government (e.g., satellite mandis).
iv. Shops of agriculture machinery, its spare parts (including its supply chain) and repairs to remain open.
Animal husbandry
i. Collection, processing, distribution and sale of milk and milk products by milk processing plants, including transport and supply chain.
ii. Operation of animal husbandry farms, including poultry farms and hatcheries and livestock farming activity.
Financial sector:
i. Bank branches and ATMs, IT vendors for banking operations, Banking Correspondents (BCs), ATM operation and cash management agencies.
ii . Bank branches be allowed to work as per normal working hours till disbursal of DBT cash transfers is complete.
11. Local administration to provide adequate security personnel at bank branches and BCs to maintain social distancing, law and order and staggering of account holders.
Operation of guidelines in Hotspots and containment zones
i. 'Hotspots', i.e., areas of large Covid-19 outbreaks, or clusters with significant spread of Covid-19, will be determined as per the guidelines issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India (Gol).
ii. In these hotspots, containment zones will be demarcated by States/ UTs/ District administrations as per the guidelines of MoHFW.
iii. In these containment zones, the activities allowed under these guidelines will not be permitted. There shall be strict perimeter control in the area of the containment zones to ensure that there is no unchecked inward/ outward movement of population from these zones except for maintaining essential services (including medical emergencies and law and order related duties) and Government business continuity. The guidelines issued in this regard by MoHFW will be strictly implemented by State/UT Governments and the local district authorities.
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