Published 14:23 IST, April 20th 2020
Kerala revises guidelines on relaxation of Coronavirus lockdown after MHA's letter
After the Centre wrote to the Kerala government asking the state to not dilute the lockdown, a revised government order was issued on Monday morning
After the Centre wrote to the Kerala government asking the state to not dilute the lockdown, a revised government order issued on Monday morning has withdrawn some of the relaxation measures earlier announced for districts where Corona positive cases are not active.
The government of Kerala has now withdrawn permission for restaurants to be opened from 7 am to 7 pm even for dine-in and is allowing only takeaway services. Permission for barbershops to be opened and vehicles to ply as per odd-even scheme too have been withdrawn.
This after the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) had written to the Chief Secretary of Kerala stating, ‘In the said Order, the GoK has allowed the opening of activities which are prohibited in the Order dated 15.04.2020 of MHA. Such additional activities allowed by GoK, inter alia, includes the opening of local workshops; barbershops; restaurants; book stores; MSMEs in municipal limits; bus travel in the cities/ towns for a shorter distance, two passengers in the back seat of four-wheeler; pillion riding on scooters. This amounts to dilution of guidelines issued by MHA and violation of MHA Order dated 15th April 2020 issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005’.
In reaction to the letter, representatives of the Kerala government had defended their move saying the decision was taken only after consultation with the Centre. Kerala Chief Secretary Tom Jose told the media, ‘All the decisions were taken after informing the Centre. We spoke with the union home secretary the night before and spoke in detail about the relaxations’.
Senior minister Kadakampally Surendran too defended the left government and said, "We have given relaxations abiding by directions issued by the Centre. The Centre may have asked for an explanation, due to some misunderstanding. Once we give an explanation, I hope the issue will be solved. We followed all norms set by the Central government’.
With positive cases down to single digits for over a week, Kerala had announced a partial lifting of lockdown from April 21st, to open govt offices, restaurants, textile shops in districts with no corona cases like Idukki and Kottayam. In Munnar, local plantation and quarry workers were allowed to resume work with restrictions. Travel to other districts continued to be banned.
Updated 14:23 IST, April 20th 2020