New Delhi: A day after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown until May 3, 2020, the Union home ministry issued guidelines on exemptions that would come into force from April 20 onwards.
Among the most important businesses which will be allowed are agriculture and related businesses. This will come as a huge relief for farmers and agricultural labourers, who have been forced to stay indoors for the last three weeks. The MHA has also allowed full functioning of agricultural mandis for procurement of the rabi crop. Activities related to animal husbandry like dairy and animal feed will also be fully functional from April 20 onwards. Fishing, too, has been allowed.
Operations of tea, coffee and rubber plantations, and their processing, packaging, sale and marketing have also been allowed, but with the restriction that a maximum of 50% of the total workers can be engaged.
Work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) has also been exempted from the lockdown. This may also come as a consolation for lakhs of daily wagers who had lost jobs because of the pandemic.
All medical facilities, including private healthcare units, veterinary hospitals, laboratories and clinics, will also start functioning. Sale and supply of medicines will also be streamlined. Manufacturing of drugs and medical equipment, and the movement of such supplies, have also been allowed. Travel restrictions, both inter-state and intra-state, for medical and paramedical workers have also been relaxed.
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Anganwadis will remain shut but the government has allowed them to distribute food items once in 15 days at the doorsteps of beneficiaries. Observation homes for children, orphanages and home care units will also be opened for normal functioning. Social security pensions for the elderly and other such groups and public provident fund services will be disbursed urgently.
As far as the financial sector is concerned, the Reserve Bank of India, capital and debt market services, and insurance companies have also been allowed. Banking operations have also been relaxed entirely.
Sectors like oil and gas, power, telecommunications, waste management, cold storage and warehousing, postal and private courier services, e-commerce companies and private security services will also be opened completely. IT and IT-enabled services have also been partially allowed. Companies can operate at a maximum of 50% strength.
Similarly, construction projects have also been allowed but builders are barred from bringing in workers from outside. They can start work if workers are “available on site”. Construction of public works, like irrigation and other industrial projects, has also been exempted.
Air, water, and land networks will also be opened for transportation of cargo. Accordingly, businesses in industrial clusters in rural areas which are outside the boundaries of municipalities have been exempted from the lockdown. Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and Export-oriented Units (EoU) will also function, provided they make arrangements for workers to stay in the premises according to standard operating protocol issued by the government for COVID-19 pandemic.
Brick kilns, food processing units, coal production, jute industries and other packaging industries have also been allowed if they follow the social distancing protocols.
Individual movement has been allowed only if the person is seeking emergency medical help or is travelling to work. Government offices have been ordered to operate too. While senior officers from the rank of deputy secretary onwards are required to be present in the offices, the remaining staff members will be asked to attend as per requirement. Only 33% of the total workforce of the offices should attend offices, the MHA said.
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Public transport in cities, air and rail travel have not been permitted at all. Educational institutions and coaching institutes will also remain shut during this period. Hotels and hospitality industry would also remain shut except some which are housing tourists who are stranded there. Any form of social, political or religious gathering will continue to remain prohibited. Sale of alcohol has also not been allowed.
The ministry clarified that all these exemptions will not be applicable in the “containment zones” which the authorities have earmarked as COVID-19 hotspots. It said additional activities will be permitted in a phased manner after making arrangements “necessary for strict implementation of the guidelines”.
You can read the full MHA note below.
MHA order on April 15 by The Wire on Scribd