The Prime Minister’s Office on Friday held a preparatory meeting with officials of seven key ministries to go through the fine details of partially relaxing on Monday, the ongoing sweeping, federal lock-down — a move aimed at restarting activity in select sectors of the Indian economy.
Chaired by PM Narendra Modi’s Principal Secretary P K Mishra, the meeting primarily focused on getting workers to factories and back, and on the systems and processes states need to put in place for effective implementation of the guidelines for a partial exit from the lockdown as laid out in a home ministry order of April 15.
That order allowed the restart of industries in rural areas and special economic zones, and also permitted services such as e-commerce — all outside so-called containment zones declared by the respective state or union territory administrations.
The idea behind the relaxation of restrictions is to allow economic activities to restart and also provide employment, especially to daily wage earners.
Labour secretary Heera Lal Samariya, MSME secretary Arun Panda, urban development secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, rural development secretary Rajesh Bhushan, shipping secretary Gopal Krishna and mines secretary Sushil Kumar were present in the meeting that was attended by all senior officials of PMO.
According to two officials present in the meeting who asked not to be identified, the main concern is to ensure fool proof ways for transportation of the workforce that will return to industries. In the absence of a public transport network, workers will have to be ferried in dedicated vehicles from their residence to the factory.
The senior bureaucrats also discussed how construction sites or factories should be monitored, with health workers, Asha workers or volunteers regularly checking on the workers.
“The home ministry has issued the revised guidelines and now a lot of ground has to be covered by the states with the help of the Centre. After all, the states have to implement the guidelines and put everything in place,” said one of the two officials.
Another issue which came up during discussions was the maintenance of law and order when lockdown norms are relaxed. As law and order is a state subject , the secretaries have been told by the PMO to keep in regular touch with the states, assess the situation, and issue directives whenever needed.
Food processing industries, road construction and industrial projects in rural areas will restart from April 20, with the government keen to create opportunities for daily wage earners. The measures are also aimed at boosting the rural economy .
The government has allowed work related to MGNREGS, irrigation projects, construction and other industrial projects in rural areas. All farm-related activities will also remain operational as the harvest season has already started in parts of India.
