Central ministries in dilemma over lockdown 4.0 relaxations

Government sources told ETV Bharat that senior officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are considering options ranging from resuming public transport services to the opening of market places, so far as relaxations are concerned.

New Delhi:As India braces itself for lockdown 4.0 with certain relaxations put in place, unabated increase in the number of COVID 19 positive cases in states like Maharastra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Delhi have put two prominent central ministries in a dilemma of sorts so far as modifications to the lockdown is concerned.

Government sources told ETV Bharat that senior officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are considering options ranging from resuming public transport services to the opening of market places, so far as relaxations are concerned.

On Friday, Home Minister Amit Shah held at least three back to back meetings with senior Home Ministry officials including Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla regarding guidelines for lockdown 4.0.

"There will be more relaxations in lockdown 4.0. A final call will be taken on the limitations of lockdown at the earliest," sources said.

The government will come up with fresh lockdown guidelines in a day or two with zone-wise relaxations. While preparing the fresh guidelines, the Central government is taking suggestions from the state governments as well.

Health Ministry statistics suggested that Maharashtra has witnessed an unprecedented number of Covid19 cases (27524) with 1,602 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Tamil Nadu and Gujarat almost touching 10,000 cases each with 9674 and 9591 respectively. Both the States registered a hike of 447 and 324 in the last 24 hours.

The national capital, Delhi, has registered 8,470 cases with 472 new cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Sources said that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs will also take a final call after proper consultation with the Health Ministry on the operation of Delhi Metro.

As of now, the Delhi metro is shut till May 17.

Officials said that Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is working out a detailed cleaning and maintenance procedure in view of the pandemic.

"The exercise will be too wide as it involves 264 stations over 2,200 coaches and over 1,100 escalators and 1,000 lifts. Protocol for social distancing, among other things, are also being worked out...The date of resumption of service has not yet been finalised," officials said.

Officials further said that resumption of public transport like inter-state and intra-state bus services is one of the crucial issues the ministries are trying to work out.

It may be mentioned here that under lockdown 3.0, the Centre had put in place several relaxations including the resumption of inter-district bus services with 50 percent seating capacity (in the green zone).

However, services like domestic and international air travel, travel by rail and metro, inter-state bus transport, inter-state individual movement by roads (except those having MHA’s permission), reopening of educational institutions, hotels-restaurants and public entertainment facilities were not allowed.

Significantly, Assam on Thursday appealed to the Central Government to extend the lockdown for two more weeks citing the increasing number of COVID 19 cases.

As per reports, states like Punjab, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Telangana also wanted a continuation of lockdown.