Industries and businesses to reopen after 20th April in Corona free areas in

New Delhi: The union health ministry announced the regulations for the reliefs to be provided in the areas with minimum or no risk of Coronavirus. The Industries in these regions may be reopened with a commitment to follow the conditions. This may provide a certain amount of impetus to the manufacturing sector, which is currently at a standstill.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the implementation of lockdown, in every police station area, district and state will be strictly monitored. The Prime Minister also announced that functioning may be permitted in those regions, which come out of the Hot Spot status and those where the possibility of becoming a Hot Spot is minimal. Prime Minister has said that the set of regulations for this will be announced on Wednesday.

Accordingly, the union home ministry announced the regulations on Wednesday morning. In this, permission has been given for farmers and agricultural labour, in view of the harvesting season for the Rabi crops and the sowing season for the Kharif crops. Permission has been given to open the shops and transport of agricultural equipment. Opening of the shops selling insecticides, seeds, fertilisers and animal feed will also be permitted. There will be no restrictions on supply milk and fish supplies.

Conditional permissions will be given to the factories in the SEZs, manufacturing and industrial establishments, food processing units in the rural sector, packaging, Jute Industry, IT-related companies, E-Commerce companies and small and medium enterprises in the rural sector. IT companies will have to function with 50% workforce, abiding by all the conditions. The factories, manufacturing and other industrial establishments, from the SEZ areas, will have to provide accommodation to the workers on their premises or will have to make arrangements for their transport. There is the condition of meticulous observance of the Social Distancing norms. A concession has been given to the projects concerned with raw materials for the pharmaceuticals and medical instruments.

Conditional permissions may be given to the construction sector along with the Road construction and irrigation projects. Permission will be given to road and other constructions in areas with less crowding. Whereas, in the urban areas, permission will be given to the construction sites, depending on the availability of construction workers at the particular site. Transport of essential and other goods by trucks and other means will be permitted. Only a driver and cleaner will be permitted to travel in these goods vehicles. The highways will be opened for goods movement and the truck repair shops along the highways will be allowed to open.

As per these regulations, the manufacturing activities will likely restart in certain regions, where the number of Coronavirus cases is reducing or there is no addition of new cases. Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan informed that no cases of Coronavirus have been reported from 400 districts in India. Whereas, two days ago, the union health ministry informed that no new cases of Coronavirus have been reported in the last 14 days, from 25 districts in 15 states. Therefore, as the manufacturing in these districts is starting, subject to conditions, the economic activities, which are at a standstill currently, will be revived to a certain extent.