AUTOS, CABS AND TRAINS RUN? BUSES PLY? TASMAC OPEN? WHAT WILL FUNCTION AND WHAT NOT IN RED, ORANGE AND GREEN ZONES!

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday announced that the Nation-wide Lockdown which was imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 will be extended for two more weeks till May 17.

The Union ministry has allowed certain activities to operate and others to remain set depending upon the severity of the pandemic in the respective zone. "The guidelines have permitted considerable relaxations in the districts falling in the Green and Orange Zones," it read. 

Green Zones are the district that have zero confirmed cases till now or the ones that have not reported a positive case over the last 21 days. Red Zones are the ones that are severely affected by the pandemic. It is classified based on the doubling rate, the number of cases reported and the surveillance status that is updated from districts. Orange zones are the ones that have not reported any case for 14 days and these neither fall under the red nor green zone. 

What are all the things that will remain closed in all the three zones during the Lockdown: 

• These include, travel by air, rail, metro and inter-state movement by the road. Hence all public transportation units are set to remain closed in all the zones, except for busses which are allowed to run in green zones with 50% capacity.
• Running of school, college, institutions, hospitality services, including hotels and restaurants, place of large gathering, such as cinema halls, malls, gym, sports complex, social, political, cultural and all kind of gathering, religious place/ place of worship for public will continue to remain closed during the lockdown.
• Salons, barber shops and spas will remain shut in urban areas. 
• Sale of liquor has been allowed ln all zones, however, not in malls, marketing complexes, and in containment areas.

What will remain operational in different zones:

Red Zones

Compared to the previous Lockdown, many activities have been permitted in Red Zones

• Most of the commercial and private establishments have been allowed to run in red zones. This includes print and electronic media, IT and IT enabled services, data and call centres, cold storage and warehousing services, private security and facility management services, and services provided by self-employed persons, except for barbers etc.
• Manufacturing units of essential goods will continue to remain functional. This list includes, drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw material and intermediates; production units, which require continuous process, and their supply chain; Jute industry with staggered shifts and social distancing; and manufacturing of IT hardware and manufacturing units of packaging material. 
• All Health services will be operational. The transportation of medical personnel and patients through air ambulances will continue to remain functional. 
• Financial sector will be partially open. This includes banks, non- banking, finance companies (NBFCs), insurance and capital market activities and credit co-operative societies.
• Except for shopping malls, all shops are allowed to function.
• Public utilities such as power, water, sanitation, waste management, telecommunications and internet will be functional. This also includes courier and postal services.
• All industrial and construction activities in rural areas, such as MNREGA work, Brick-kilns, food- processing units are allowed.
• All agricultural activities such as sowing, harvesting, procurement and marketing operations for agricultural supply chain will be allowed. 
• All activities related to Animal Husbandry will be permitted which includes inland and marine fisheries. 
• Plantation activities will be allowed. 
• Homes for children, senior citizens, destitute, women and widows and operation of anganwadis will be open. 

Orange Zones

• In the Orange Zones, all the activities listed under Red Zone will be permitted. Along with that, taxis and cab aggregators will be allowed with one driver and one passenger.
• Inter- district movement of individuals and vehicles will be allowed in order to carry the permitted activities. 
• Four-wheeler vehicles can only have two passengers apart from the driver. 
• In two wheelers, both the passenger and driver will be allowed.
• E-commerce websites are allowed to deliver non-essential items in orange zones. 

Green Zones

• In the Green Zones, all activities will be allowed except the limited number of activities that are prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the zone.
• However, buses can operate in green zone with upto 50% capacity. This limit has been set in order to maintain social distancing. 
• E-commerce websites are allowed to deliver non- essential items in green zones.

“Similar to the previous lockdown, all goods traffic is to be permitted. No State/ UT shall stop the movement of cargo for cross land-border trade under Treaties with neighbouring countries. No separate pass of any sort is needed for such movement, since it is essential for maintaining the supply chain of goods and services across the country during the lockdown period”, India Today cited in its report. 

Despite, the detailed guidelines, states and Union Territories will be allowed to assess the situation in their respective localities and allow only certain activities to permit and restrict few if that step is required to be taken to curb the spread of the pandemic.