The Prime Minister’s Office, which has been in the middle of the decision-making process during the Covid-19 lockdown, is holding one of the last rounds of meetings to finalise the modalities for the second phase of the graded lockdown that will be announced by PM Narendra Modi at 10 am tomorrow.
The 21-day national lockdown announced by PM Modi on March 24 evening ends on Tuesday midnight. PM Modi has told chief ministers that the focus of the second phase would be not only to save lives of people from the disease but also their livelihood.
The PMO is working with top government officials to draw up the blueprint of how this plan would be implemented. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to sign off on the plan later in the day.
A top government official told Hindustan Times that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on the broad steps to follow, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla will issue a detailed note on the mechanics. “A meeting on the next steps to be taken is currently on at Raisina Hill,” the official said.
The Raisina Hill is the seat of power of the central government and comprises the PMO and ministries of finance, home and defence.
The broad focus of this blueprint would be to gradually resume economic activity in the 160-odd districts that do not have a single case of coronavirus safe but take all steps to ensure that the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen that causes Covid-19 does not reach there.
The second set with limited economic activity will be districts with below 500 coronavirus positive cases along with revival of the self-contained public sector and private industrial units.
Within these states too, the government is looking at the proposal of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to reopen industrial units that are able to accommodate workers at its premises or bring them in special vehicles from safe zones. The department had proposed a list 12 big industries that could be allowed in a graded manner.
The third set will include states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where the number of corona positive cases are high even though those areas have been demarcated as containment zones.
Even in these red zones, officials said organised activity will be allowed. Unorganised economic activity may be allowed within monitored areas. For instance, officials said, they were looking at the possibility of using, say a hall in a school, for selling vegetables for a few hours, say 6am to 11 am, fruits for another set of hours and if need be, other essentials later.
The idea is to give unorganised trade a means for sustenance without risking spread of the disease.
