On May 1, the central government announced that the current lockdown will remain in effect till May 17. It comes as no surprise, given that there had been plenty of hints dropped regarding the same. Even the State Health Minister Rajesh Tope had shared almost a week back that the lockdown may be extended in red zone places like Mumbai and Pune till May 18.
However, there are a few changes to look forward to in the coming week. Come May 4, six places that are in green zone can start going back to normal. Even for the red zones there are a few relations offered by the MHA which includes 33 per cent workforce going back to offices but there will no public transport be it auto, cars or even local trains to ferry people across the city.
It was always said that India will be exiting the lockdown in a planned manner. The first phase of relaxations came in effect on April 20 itself. The government have given a go-ahead to partially resume agricultural activities, fishing, industrial and manufacturing operations across the country. In addition to this, rural or urban roads and other building construction work were given a permit to start.
To reduce the impact on rural regions, food processing industries, works under MNREGA, and operation of rural Common Service Centres (CSCs) was given permission to start among other things.
Finally, there was also permission given to start Manufacturing of IT goods will also be permitted, while coal, mineral and oil activities.
There was an announcement made that e-tailer will be able to sell white goods such as AC, fridges, TV and mobile phones from this date but later the government went back on its order.
Post this, the government on April 25, the government gave permission for standalone shops in green zones to open. These shops could be selling garments, mobile phones, hardware and stationery items. However, the shops in market places and malls were asked to stay shut till May 3. At this point, the government also emphasised that the salon and beauty parlours even in the neighbourhood should remain closed till further notification.
india has adopted a decentralised approach for lifting the lockdown. The idea is to make sure that the risks are minimised and also to ensure that some economic activities can start.
While MHA has released blanket guidelines of what happens in the next phase of the lockdown, there is a lot of things that are still in the grey zone. It is expected most of these blanks will be filled by the state.
The overall idea for every state is to identify zones that are ready to resume operations and thereby make plans to open these so that the economic activities can resume. The state would also have to aggressively work towards converting the red zones into orange and further to green.
Modi in his address to the states earlier in this week also emphasised on this as he said, “Efforts of states should be directed towards converting the red zones into orange and thereafter into green zones."
The big take away for Maharashtra
Even though the lockdown may continue a little while longer, the state is leaving no stone unturned to get the economy back in track. For starters, the Maharashtra govt has created a special task force which will not just help in reviewing the situation at hand but also assist in reviving the economy of the state after the lockdown is lifted. This task force is headed by Rahunath Mashelkar and economist Vijay Kelkar and banker Deepak Parekh are a part of the same. This task force will be working under CM's guidance
As of date, no permission given to industries based in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan , Dombivli, Pune and Panvel, since all these places fall in the red zone. In addition to this, industries engaged in essential sectors are being encouraged to keep a tab on the healthcare of their employees.
While people continue to make peace with this new normal and look forward to when this lockdown will be over, they are looking forward for the Chief Minister to shed more light on how to progress with things post-May 3.
Share
Tweet
