Karnataka to partially relax coronavirus lockdown from April 23

Karnataka to partially relax coronavirus lockdown from April 23

Bengaluru: Courier services, construction work and manufacturing of packaging materials are among the select activities that Karnataka has decided to allow from April 23.

‘To mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities have been allowed which will come into effect from 00.00 hours of April 23, 2020,’ Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said in an order issued Wednesday.

The select activities will be allowed only outside the COVID-19 containment zones identified by the government.

Public transportation will remain suspended till May 3, but private vehicles with passes for emergency services and personnel commuting with passes to places of work and back are allowed.

Construction of roads, irrigation projects, buildings and all kinds of industrial projects, including MSMEs, in rural areas and all kinds of projects in industrial estates, where workers are available on site and no workers are required to be brought in from outside, will be allowed.

Significantly, services provided by self-employed persons – electricians, IT repairs, plumbers, auto mechanics, carpenters etc – are allowed.

Manufacturing units of essential goods – drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw materials and intermediates – food processing industries in rural areas, coal production (mines and mineral production and activities incidental to mining) and manufacturing units of packaging materials will be allowed.

The government, which is facing a financial crunch, is under immense pressure to kickstart economic activities that stopped because of the coronavirus-driven lockdown.

But flights, buses, metro rail and inter-district, inter-state travel are banned till May 3. Hospitality services, bars, malls, theatres, shopping complexes and so on are to remain shut. All religious places are to stay closed.