The State government has given powers to the Health and Family Welfare Department to assess the COVID-19 situation in other States and decide on inter-State movement of people.
The State had been contemplating restricting movement of people from five States — Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu — where the prevalence of COVID-19 is high. The State Cabinet, it is learnt, had also discussed restricting movement of persons from these States to Karnataka.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy had also indicated that the State was pressing for fewer flights from these States. Incidentally, Karnataka has already tightened its borders with Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu by restricting travel by road.
Sunday’s guidelines, signed by Chief Secretary T.M. Vijaybhaskar, stated that the Department of Health and Family Welfare would issue a separate order in this respect.
The MHA guidelines had equipped States to regulate movement of persons for public health reasons, and such regulations should be done with adequate publicity.
Fate of businesses
While the State has expectedly stuck to the Union government’s guidelines, several business groups in Karnataka that had met Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa seeking the opening of businesses have been left disappointed. They include shopping mall owners and those running hotels and restaurants. They had begun preparations to open their businesses over the past week and were hoping to get permission to open shutters from Monday.
Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office had indicated that though the State was pushing for opening up some businesses, it would stick to the MHA guidelines. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power here, it will not go beyond the MHA directives in connection with the lockdown, sources said.
As per the MHA notification, all these businesses along with places of worship will be part of phase 1 of reopening on June 8, under the fifth phase of the lockdown that will be in place till June 30. The total lockdown, except for essential and emergency services, will be in place only in areas identified as containment zones.
While the Chief Minister had earlier announced that places of worship, including temples, churches and mosques, would be open from June 1, devotees now have to wait another week before they will be reopened with norms for social distancing and a standard operating procedure put in place. Several temples had started preparations for opening up with restrictions in place.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Wine Merchants’ Association, Karnataka, which was expecting some kind of relief from Monday, has expressed disappointment at being left out in the new guidelines. Though the reopening of bars will be looked into in phase 3, along with gyms, swimming pools, entertainment parks, and theatres, a time frame has not been mentioned, an office-bearer said, adding that it was becoming difficult to maintain overheads.
