In a new set of exemptions released on Tuesday, the Government said it has allowed additional agricultural and forestry items and opening of shops for school and college books and electric fans during the Coronavirus lockdown, which ends on May 3.

Further, the MHA has also issued SOPs on sign-on/sign-off for Indian seafarers at Indian ports and their movement for the same.

Advertisement

In the revised consolidated guidelines issued on April 19, the Government had said, to mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities will be allowed with effect from April 20. However, these do not apply to containment zones as demarcated by States/UTs/Distarict administartions.

Facilities for export or import such as pack houses, inspection and treatment facilities for seeds and horticulture produce and research establishments dealing with the agriculture and horticulture activities have been exempted from the purview of the lockdown in the recent update.

Inter and intra-state movement of planting materials and honey bee colonies, honey and other beehive products will also be allowed to function, said a home ministry order. So will forest offices, forestry plantation and related activities, including Silviculture operations.

Shops of educational books for students and electric fans will be allowed to be opened for public.

Also, in-house care-givers of senior citizens, prepaid mobile recharge utilities, food-processing units in urban areas have been exempted from lockdown restrictions to fight COVID-19.

These food processing units include bread factories, milk processing plants, flour mills, dal mills etc, located in urban areas.

The Government had on April 19 revised the list of economic activities and services allowed from April 20 in parts of the country least affected by the novel Coronavirus outbreak.

As per a Home Ministry order, the supply of non-essential goods by e-commerce companies has now been prohibited during the lockdown period. The supply of such goods including, mobile phones, laptops, television sets and refrigerators, had been permitted by the government earlier.

Among economic activities and services to be functional are health services (including Ministry of AYUSH) and non-banking financial corporations and micro-finance institutions marked essential services.

Here is a list of services that had been allowed to function all over India with effect from 20th April 2020.

• Financial sector
• Social sector
• MNREGA works (with strict social distancing and use of face masks)
• Public utilities
• Loading and unloading of goods/cargo (inter- and intra-) state
• Online teaching/distance learning
• Supply of essential goods
• Commercial and private establishments
• Industries/industrial establishments (both government and private)
• Construction activities
• Private vehicles for emergency services (medical and veterinary care), procuring essential commodities and for personnel traveling to workplaces in exempted categories, as per instructions of state/union territory authorities
  Offices of Government of India and offices of states and union territories

The first phase of lockdown ended on April 14 and was extended till May 3 following a spurt in the number of Coronavirus cases in the country.

India till Wednesday reported 19,984 cases including 640 deaths. Maharashtra has reported the highest infections (5,218), followed by Gujarat (2,178) and Delhi (2,156).