The Ministry of Home Affairs announced that it has revised the lockdown guidelines by giving relaxation to local shop owners and certain establishments that are engaged in selling non-essential items. Registered shops selling non-essential goods can now open from Saturday onwards. This order comes as a modification of the order issued by the Ministry on April 15. However, the revised guidelines are applicable to non-hotspot areas and non-containment zones, hotspots and containment zones will continue to follow the restrictions.
The MHA said that the consolidated revised guidelines will not apply in containment zones, as demarcated by States/ UTs/ District Administrations. If any new area is included in the category of a containment zone, the activities allowed in that area till the time of its categorization as a containment zone, will be suspended except for those activities as are specifically permitted under the guidelines of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India.
Speaking on the relaxations given in the revised lockdown guidelines, the MHA said, “Giving relaxation in the category of Commercial and private establishments, MHA has issued an order to all States/UTs, to allow opening of all shops registered under Shops & Establishment Act of respective States/ UTs, including shops in residential complexes, neighborhood & standalone shops.”
“Shops in market complexes, except those within the limits of municipal corporations and municipalities, would be allowed to open. Shops in single & multi-brand malls would not be allowed to open anywhere,” it added.
The MHA further clarified that all permitted shops can open only with 50% strength of workers and have to ensure wearing of masks and strict adherence to social distancing norms.
The order further clarifies that it is not applicable to shopping complexes and malls but only to local shops registered with the municipal corporation. “In Sub-clause 1 (x), the term ‘shopping complexes’ is replaced with ‘market complexes within the limits of municipal corporations and municipalities,” reads the order.
HrNxt.com Newsdesk has researchers and writers with an excellent domain knowledge about the talent ecosystem, and the business environment. The team keeps a tab on the latest happenings in the ecosystem to bring most relevant news and insights for our readers. You can connect with our newsdesk at newsdesk@hrnxt.com.