Here are the new Lockdown Guidelines

Yesterday Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced extension of lockdown till May 3rd and also said, the Centre will be issuing new guidelines to follow the lockdown. The government will also allow farm activities, construction of roads and buildings in rural areas, IT, e-commerce and all inter-state goods transport of essential commodities.

Here are the top points of the guidelines.

1. As agriculture is the backbone of the country, the Centre has decided to permit all agricultural and related activities. A majority of daily wagers and others depend on them and this would relieve them in a big time.

2. To revive the rural economy, the Centre will allow industries operating in rural areas, including food processing, irrigation projects, realestate and industrial projects in rural areas.

3. Manufacture of IT hardware and of essential goods and packaging can resume but at these places social distancing should be maintained.

4. The Reserve Bank of India, banks, ATMs, and insurance companies will also remain operational like they are doing currently even in the lockdown.

5. Coal, mineral and oil production will be allowed. A few states like Andhra and Telangana do coal production and it would be transported to respective power generation companies.

6. E-commerce, IT and IT-enabled services, data and call centres for government activities will be permitted depending upon the situation in respective cities.

7. Central and State Governments and local bodies will remain open.

Apart from these, the Centre has suspended all the air, train and bus services till May 3rd. Air and train services might resume from May 4th which is to be acknowledged.