The Telangana state cabinet on Sunday decided to extend the lockdown period in the state till May 7 and not to give any relaxations to any sector from Monday, as against the Centre’s proposal to provide certain relaxations to various sectors.
The nationwide lockdown period is set to end on May 3.
Briefing the reporters after the six-hour long cabinet meeting held at his camp office Pragati Bhavan, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said as per the Epidemic Diseases Act, the states too have a right on par with the Centre to decide on the steps to be taken for containing the epidemic diseases like Covid-19.
“The Covid-19 situation all over the world is a matter of concern. In many countries, the spread of the virus subsided but is getting repeated. As many as 42 countries, which lifted lockdown, were forced to reimpose again. We have to learn from their experiences,” KCR said.
Though the Central government had extended lockdown up to May 3, it had given relaxations to certain sectors from Monday.
“The cabinet thoroughly discussed the central guidelines and the situation in the state and decided that no relaxations be given to any sector and the lockdown be extended with the existing guidelines till May 7,” he said.
The officials told the cabinet that the situation would ease to some extent by May 1, as all the patients undergoing treatment in the hospitals would recover by then and those in quarantine would be completing their 28-day isolation. Though some new cases might surface in the next few days, they might also come down gradually.
“Till such time, we have to be extremely careful and hence the decision to extend lockdown till May 7. We shall be tough in implementing the lockdown. The cabinet will meet again on May 5 to take stock of the situation and take appropriate decisions on easing the lockdown then,” KCR said.
The cabinet directed that the police take stringent measures to contain the spread of the diseases in the containment zones.
“While online suppliers of essential commodities will be allowed, the cabinet decided to ban online food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato from Monday, since there is a possibility of virus spreading through them,” he said.
The chief minister appealed to foreign travellers and also domestic travellers not to come to Telangana.
“Even if the flight services are resumed, we shall not allow the travellers to enter Hyderabad city,” he said.
The cabinet also banned all religious congregations in the state till May 7. It also asked 10,000-odd private schools not to hike tuition fees for the coming academic year 2020-21 and also collect any other fees other than monthly tuition fees.The cabinet decided to waive fixed power charges for all industrial units that were shut down during lockdown period. It also decided to make salary cuts ranging from 10 per cent to 75 per cent for all the government employees and pensioners and also elected public representatives.
KCR appealed to the Centre to relax FRBM limits to help states raise required funds owing to loss of revenues to states during Covid-19 lockdown .
