Current affairs

Lockdown extension: Center issues fresh guidelines - What would be functioning?

By alagu, 15 April, 2020
India, Coronavirus, Epidemic, Global Pandemic, Nationwide lockdown

The Central government has, on Wednesday, rolled out the fresh guidelines for the unprecedented lockdown which has been extended till May 3 as the nation prepares to grip up its fight against the spread of Coronavirus in its territory. The nation has marked its first day of the second spell of the lockdown amid the speculations that the Center would pour some relaxations to the tightened restrictions.

 

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has put out these official guidelines which will be in place till May 3rd and the newest relaxation measure to be noted in these fresh guidelines is that the Central government would lift the restrictions on some of the public activities related to the agricultural sector. The guidelines for the extended lockdown had kept the prevailing ban alive on the private and industrial establishments, all transportation channels, and the movement of the people with the exceptions for emergencies. The Central government has decided to appoint incident commanders who would be responsible for implementing the measures as per the guidelines.

Here are the takeaways from the fresh guidelines:

  • The newest relaxation in the agricultural sector would aim to relax the hardship of the public. The farming operations, procurement activities, and mandis organized by the state will begin its operations from April 20th and on the same day, the pharmaceutical research activities, manufacturing of the drugs, and medical services would resume its operations.
  • Hospitals, Veterinary hospitals, and all related medical establishments including manufacturing and distribution units of both public and private sectors, such as pharmacies, dispensaries, chemists, medical equipment shops, laboratories, clinics, nursing homes, ambulance services will remain functional.
  • The guidelines keep the restrictions in place on the movement of the people as the interstate and inter-district movements have been banned till May 3 so does the transportation services including air, rail, and roadways. 
  • However, the movements of the vehicles for the emergency purposed would be permitted including the transportation of the essential goods, cargo, relief, evacuation, law and order, and other emergency services.
  • The Educational, training, research, and coaching institutions across the country would remain closed and all the places of worship won't be opened for the public until the deadline of the lockdown period. No religious congregations and funerals of more than twenty people would be permitted.
  • Wearing face cover has been made compulsory in all public and workplaces and spitting is strictly prohibited in public places and shall be punishable with a fine. The use of the Arogya Setu app will be encouraged for all the employees both in the private and public sectors. 
  • All the industrial and commercial activities, apart from the essentials such as rations shops, groceries, fruits, and vegetable shops, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder, fertilizers, seeds, and pesticides, will remain closed. All cinema halls, shopping malls, and other recreational places including parks, bars, auditoriums, and gyms will remain shut down.
  • Banks, Insurance companies, print and electronic media, and e-commerce companies that deliver food, medical equipment would remain functional. The manufacturing units of the essential goods and medical services would be coming into operation.
  • The operations of the Oil and Gas sector including refining, transportation, distribution, storage and retail products including petrol, diesel, LPG, etc would remain functional along with the postal services, telecommunications, and internet services.

According to the guidelines, with the view of implementing these fresh measures, the District Magistrate will deploy Executive Magistrates as Incident Commanders in the respective local jurisdictions. The Incident Commanders will be responsible for the overall implementation of these measures and all other department officials in the specified area will work under the directions of the incident commanders. The Incident commanders would hold the authority to issue passes for enabling movements. Any person violating these lockdown measures will be liable to proceed against as per the provisions of Section 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act 2005 besides legal action under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

Also read: The nationwide lockdown has been extended till May 3rd - Here's what Modi said!

 

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