Maharashtra govt slams Centre over reopening airports; argues it's 'extremely ill-advised'

Even as Centre has announced that domestic air travel will resume from May 25, Maharashtra's Home Minister on Sunday said that it is an 'extremely ill-advised' decision. Taking to Twitter, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that if airports are in red zone then 'mere thermal scanning is inadequate without swabs.' He also opposed the plying of autos, cabs and buses in the red zones, adding that it will increase the Covid stress. 

His remarks come a day after state's Principal Secretary, Bhushan Gagrani, informed that the Uddhav-Thackeray led government has not amended its lockdown order dated May 19 and therefore, air travel continues to be restricted.

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Centre's decision on flight services 

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, revealed that by August-September, a 'good percentage' of international flights will begin operation. He added that he is aiming to start international flights from mid-June. He had also announced that domestic flights will resume services from May 25 after which the AiIrports Authority of India (AAI) issued guidelines for the same. The Civil Aviation Ministry also said that there will be new fare structure to keep flight travel affordable. A number of states have since issued their own SOPs for arrivals.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally 

Maharashtra again breached its earlier single-highest one-day COVID-19 tally after 2,940 persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday, May 22. While there are 44,582 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the state, the number of active cases stands at 30,474. 857 COVID-19 patients were discharged in the day, taking the number of recovered to 12,583. 63 deaths.

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So far, 1,517 deaths have been recorded in Maharashtra. A total of 3,32,777 laboratory samples have been collected until now. There are 1,949 active containment zones in Maharashtra currently. Surveillance of 66.32 lakh population has been undertaken by 16,154 surveillance squads. While 4,69,279 persons are under home quarantine, 28,430 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres.

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