Published 23:38 IST, April 10th 2020
MHA amends lockdown guidelines once again; fishing industry and its workers can function
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday issued the fifth Addendum to the nationwide lockdown guidelines whereby the fishing industry shall remain operational.
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The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday issued the fifth Addendum to the nationwide lockdown guidelines whereby the fishing industry shall continue to be operational. This implies that feeding and maintenance, harvesting, packaging, cold chain, sale, and marketing of fish shall be permitted during the lockdown. Moreover, the movement of fish and fish products, fish seeds and workers for all the aforesaid activities has been given the green signal by the MHA. At the same time, it has been stressed that social distancing and proper hygiene activities must be followed. The district authorities have been directed to ensure strict enforcement in this regard.
#CoronaVirusUpdates
— Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) April 10, 2020
MHA issues 5th Addendum to the consolidated guidelines issued reg. #Lockdown21, to exempt Operations of Marine Fishing/Aquaculture Industry and its Workers from the lockdown restrictions to fight #COVID19.
Press Release 👇https://t.co/71N0XO8CPH https://t.co/En4MwrN3IA pic.twitter.com/brxNUklHBS
MHA issues lockdown guidelines
On March 24, the MHA issued an order detailing guidelines for the nationwide lockdown. As per the order, it was declared that all offices of the government barring for those providing essential services would remain shut. While all commercial establishments and private organizations were instructed to remain shut, certain exemptions such as hospitals, print and electronic media, shops selling essential items, e-delivery of food, medical equipment, banks, petrol pumps, etc. were specified.
A day later, the MHA issued an Addendum specifying more categories of essential services exempted during the period of the 21-day lockdown. This includes the IT vendor for banking operations, coal and mineral production, manufacturing units of packaging material for food items, medical devices, the inter-state movement of goods for imports and exports and cross land border movement of essential items such as LPG, medical supplies and food products. This was followed by farming and its related activities being designated as essential goods and services on March 27 via another Addendum to the guidelines.
The Centre issued a third Addendum on April 2 releasing a Standard Operating Procedure for the movement of stranded foreign nationals and the release of quarantined persons who test negative for COVID-19. On April 3, the fourth Addendum further extended the list of exemptions. On this occasion, shops of agricultural machinery, its spare parts, and repairs along with tea plantations with a maximum strength of 50% were granted permission to operate.
23:38 IST, April 10th 2020