Unlock 1.0: States issue guidelines to ease more curbs

New Delhi: Even though the Centre has begun the process of unlocking India from Monday, the country wouldn't be able to go back to its normal as it existed before March 24 when lockdown 1.0 was announced.

As the MHA allowed all activities outside containment zones to resume in a phased manner from June 1, some of the states extended the lockdown in a graded way by enforcing some of the existing restrictions for the next two weeks.

The states like Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Telangana, Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir, etc have extended the lockdown for a certain period of time to curb the spread of the Coronavirus disease even as the Centre issued guidelines to ease the restrictions. While announcing a four-week extension of the lockdown till June 30, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said that his government will take into account the Centre's guidelines for lockdown 5.0. The West Bengal government had on Saturday extended the COVID-19 lockdown until June 15 only in containment zones, while restrictions have been lifted in all other areas. As per the state government order, a strict lockdown will be imposed in the affected areas, with no relaxations.

Relaxations will be allowed in containment zones B and C from June 1, with the resumption of work in tea gardens, jute mills, micro, small, medium & large industries, and the construction industry. Going by the Centre's guidelines, Bihar government extended its lockdown till June 30, while in Madhya Pradesh, schools in the state would open after June 13 as the lockdown has been extended in the state till June 15.

The Telangana government has extended the lockdown in containment zones till June 30 even as it lifted the restrictions on inter-state movement of people. However, certain restrictions currently enforced in non-containment zones would remain extended till June 7.

As per Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar night-time curfew would be implemented daily from 9 pm to 5 am and shops would be allowed to remain open only till 8 pm.

Extending the lockdown in the entire state till June 30, Maharashtra government announced the easing of restrictions and phase-wise resumption of activities under the "Mission Begin Again". However, COVID-19 containment zones will have no relaxations and schools in remote areas of Maharashtra without internet connectivity and unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic would be reopened by implementing social distancing norms.

The Gujarat government has decided to allow shops and businesses located outside the COVID-19 containment zones to operate without any restrictions.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration extended the lockdown until June 8.

The Rajasthan government allowed full attendance in government and private sector offices but continued with the prohibitions on opening religious places, hotels and malls in the next phase of the lockdown till June 30.

The Tamil Nadu government announced the extension of the ongoing lockdown till June 30 and allowed more relaxations that included partially opening up public transport and allowing more employees at the workplace.

States like Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka also lifted restrictions on the inter-state and intra-state movement of people and goods.

The UP government allowed inter-state travel but left it to the district administrations of Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar to take a call on the movement of people from adjoining Delhi.