After Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday that the government received over 5 lakh suggestions from people regarding lockdown relaxations in Delhi post May 17, the state government on Thursday submitted a proposal to the Centre and suggested the opening of markets, shopping complexes and operation of buses and metro services with strict social distancing norms.

The Delhi government in its proposal has suggested that the operation of construction activities in the national capital and movement of labourers within Delhi be allowed, according to government sources.

Advertisement

Taxis with two passengers will be allowed and in buses, 20 passengers are likely to be allowed to travel under strict social distancing norms, said sources.

“The government has suggested that opening of markets, complexes and malls should be allowed in Delhi. However, shops engaged in non-essential items in shopping complexes and malls should be allowed to operate on an odd-even basis,” government sources was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

In the national capital, from the next two-three days, the government will come out with a standard operating procedure to allow economic activities from Monday.

CM Kejriwal on Thursday at media briefing, informed that most people have suggested that different economic activities should be allowed in the city from May 18 based on decisions taken by the Centre on lockdown relaxation.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister had sought suggestions from people and experts on lockdown relaxations post May 17, even as the national capital continued to witness a spike in Coronavirus cases.

Most people have also suggested strict action against those not wearing masks and violating social-distancing norms.

Buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws should be allowed to operate in the city but with social-distancing, he said during the online briefing on Thursday.

“The country, including Delhi, has been closed for the last one and a half months due to coronavirus-induced lockdown. It was easy to close, but we have to work very hard to open up the economy. We usually do hard work. The coming times are very difficult,” Mr Kejriwal said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a meeting with the ministers, had hinted at an extension of the nationwide lockdown for the third time beyond May 17, but with more relaxations.

PM Modi also asked the chief ministers to share by May 15 a broad strategy on how they want to deal with lockdown regime in their states.

Speaking on his part, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested that all economic activities should be allowed in the national capital except in containment zones.

The Delhi CM also called for lifting more curbs in Delhi, all of which has been designated a Red Zone.

The Delhi government is in favour of allowing all offices, industries, markets and e-commerce with precautions like physical distancing, masks and face-shields, limiting the number of people, as reported by NDTV.

Last week during an online press conference, the Delhi CM had said that the national capital is in favour of lifting the lockdown and the citizens need to learn to live with the coronavirus.

However, his remarks were not validated by the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan who later said that Delhi should allow “only minimum relaxations”.

He had asserted that stringent measures are required to tackle the highly contagious Coronavirus in Delhi.

The health minister had also blamed people in metros like Delhi and Mumbai for not following the lockdown guidelines properly. He said that not following lockdown measures is one of the main reasons these cities are not performing well in controlling the spread of Coronavirus as compared to other cities in the country.

On Tuesday, CM Kejriwal had made it clear that the lockdown cannot be lifted completely given that the city was recording a high number of coronavirus cases daily.

Delhi is among the worst-hit states. Delhi has seen a spike of 472 cases of coronavirus in a day taking its tally to 8,470. 115 COVID-19 patients have succumbed to the infection.