Mamata govt announces lockdown relaxations, liquor shops to reopen in West Bengal

As India eased the restrictions imposed due to Coronavirus lockdown, the West Bengal government announced series of relaxations on Monday in various COVIDzones, even as reopening of liquor shops at various places witnessed a grave violation of social distancing norms.

Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha announced a host of relaxations for standalone shops in various zones -- red, green and orange. He added that these concessions might dilute the lockdown for combating the COVID-19 pandemic. The state reported 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 61 and number of cases climbed to 1,259. Four districts, including Kolkata and Howrah, fall in the red zone, eight are in green and 11 in orange zones in the state. The Union Health Ministry has, however, identified 10 districts in the red zone.

READ | Govt to facilitate return of Indians stranded abroad from May 7 in a phased manner

Relaxations in West Bengal

Sinha said though the Centre had extended the lockdown by two weeks, it had given liberty to the state governments to allow certain activities after assessing the ground situation. He added that mining activities would be started in green and orange zones, and standalone shops in all the zones would be allowed to open from 10 am to 6 pm, except in the containment areas. Clarifying that those shops that are not situated within shopping malls or market complexes would be considered as standalone shops, Sinha said neighbourhood shops, sweetmeat shops, those selling beetle leaves, and tea could open, but people would have to carry the tea back home where they can consume it.

READ | Kerala village orders people to carry umbrellas when outside to ensure physical distancing

Appealing to the private operators to run the buses in intra-district routes, the chief secretary said intra-district private bus services had been allowed with a maximum of 20 passengers in green zones. Construction activities in rural and urban areas were also allowed with workers being put up at the site, he said. Noting that the private offices would be allowed to operate from 10 am to 6 pm with 25 per cent staff strength outside containment zones, he added that all the guidelines had to be followed as a violation of the guidelines would call for legal action under the Disaster Management Act.

On reopening of the liquor shops, he said it will operate from noon to 7 pm as per the latest government order, which also stated about the do's and don'ts, both for the customers and the shopkeepers. In the past  week, a total of 4,042 people have been arrested for violating lockdown in the city and 684 cars have been seized.

READ | Coronavirus Live Updates

India's lockdown extended

On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification extending the nationwide lockdown by 2 weeks from May 4. The notification states the considerable relaxations in districts falling in green and orange zones allowed by MHA, will continue to remain in place. The Union Health Ministry has divided districts across the nation as red (classified based on total active cases, doubling rate, the extent of testing and surveillance) - 130 districts, orange (those neither in green or red zones) - 284 districts and green zones (Zero cases for past 21 days) - 319 districts. Restrictions too have been lifted accordingly. Currently, India has 42836 cases with 1389 deaths.

(with PTI inputs)

READ | Andhra Pradesh: Tenali villagers queue outside liquor shop 'distancing' with umbrellas