IT Correspondent
Mumbai, May 20
In response to changes made by the railways, in its plan to run “Shramik Special” trains, the e Maharashtra and Gujarat government has sought permission to start local trains for government employees and for all those involved with essential services, including health services.
The local train services can be started on limited basis, to accommodate only those dealing with essential services and of need be the police and paramilitary staff can be deployed on stations to ensure implementation of physical distancing norms, a letter sent by Maharashtra Government to the railways stated. Besides the Delhi Government has stated that the metro rail can be started in a phased manner in Delhi to enable movement of people engaged in essential services. However the railways have stated that after the decision is taken by the Union Home ministry, further action will be taken.
In the meanwhile the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government has issued new guidelines for coronavirus lockdown 4.0, dividing the entire state into red and non-red zones, from 22 May, Friday onwards. During the earlier phases of lockdown, the state (as other parts of the country) was divided into red, orange and green zones.
The Municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (which includes Mumbai, Thane and surrounding towns), as well as civic bodies of Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Akola and Amravati fall in the red zone. All the remaining areas of Maharashtra, will fall in the non-red zone.
Red Zone : 1) All essential shops which are allowed & permitted to remain open before this order shall continue to do so, 2) All Non -essential shops will be allowed to continue as per relaxation & guidelines issued before this order. Liquor shops will continue to operate if permitted, home delivery or other wise. 3)The shops/ malls/ establishments /industries which are not allowed to open in the red zones, will be permitted to remain open from 9 AM to 5 PM. only for the purpose of upkeep & maintenance of material/machinery/furniture etc. and for pre-monsoon protection activities of property and goods. However, no other activity (commercial/ production) will be permitted. 4)E-commerce activity for essential as well as non-essential items & material, 5) All industries units which are permitted to operate, 6) All construction sites (Public/ Pvt) which are allowed to remain open & operational. All such pre-monsoon works (Public/Pvt) which are allowed. 7) Taxi/Cab/ Aggregator/ Rickshaw-No, Four-wheeler Only essential 1 +2, Two-wheeler Only essential, one rider, 8) Home delivery restaurants/ Kitchen. 9) All emergency staff, including health & medical treasury, Disaster Management, police Food & Civil Supply, All other Govt offices (including commissionerates & Directorates) including sub-registrar & RTO offices & Dy RTO offices, offices of University/ colleges for non-teach purpose, staff involved in the evaluation of answer sheets, declaration of results & development of e-content will function at 5% strength minimum 10 employees whichever is more. Central Govt offices will continue to function as per the existing permitted norms.
Non-Red Zones
All activities, which are not explicitly prohibited or banned shall be permitted in non-Red zones with the following conditions. 1) No permission is needed from any govt, authority to undertake or perform permitted activity, 2) Sports Complex, Stadia & other public open spaces will be permitted to remain open for individual exercise. However, spectators & group activity will not be allowed. All physical exercise & other activities will be done with social distancing norms. 3) All public & private transports will undertake passenger management as follows
Two-wheeler; 1 rider, Three-wheeler 1+2, Four-wheeler 1 +2. 4)Intra-district bus services will be allowed within a maximum 50% capacity per bus with physical distancing & sanitation measures. 5) Regarding inter-district bus service orders will be issued separately and all markets/shops will remain open from 9 AM to 5 PM. If any crowding failure of social distancing norms is seen the authorities will immediately close such markets/shops
