Amid the talks of extension of nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 in India, the Union Ministry Of Home Affairs on Saturday (April 12) released consolidated guidelines on the measures to be taken by different Ministries and Departments of Government of India, State/Union Territory Governments and State/ Union Territory Authorities for containment of COVID-19 epidemic in the country.
The MHA guidelines say that the offices of the Government of India, its Autonomous/ Subordinate Offices and Public Corporations shall remain closed during the lockdown.
Exceptions:
a. Defence, central armed police forces.
b. Treasury (including, Pay & Accounts Offices, Financial Advisers and field offices of the Controller General of Accounts, with bare minimum staff),
c. Public utilities (including petroleum, CNG, LPG, PNG), power generation and transmission units, post offices.
Disaster management and Early Warning Agencies
e. National Informatics Centre.
f. Customs clearance at ports/airports/land border, GSTN; and MCA 21 Registry with bare minimum staff.
g. Reserve Bank of India and RBI regulated financial markets and entities like NPCL, CCIL, payment system operators and standalone primary dealers with
bare minimum staff.
2. Offices of the State/ Union Territory Governments, their Autonomous Bodies, Corporations, etc. should remain closed.
Exceptions:
a. Police, home guards, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster management, and prisons.
b. District administration and Treasury (including field offices of the Accountant General with bare minimum staff)
c. Electricity, water, sanitation.
d. Municipal bodies- Only staff required for essential services like sanitation, personnel related to water supply etc.
e. Resident Commissioner of States, in New Delhi with bare minimum staff, for coordinating Covid-19 related activities and internal kitchens operations.
f. Forest offices :Staff/ workers required to operate and maintain zoo, nurseries, wildlife, firefighting in forests, watering plantations, patrolling and their
necessary transport movement.
g. Social Welfare Department, with bare minimum staff, for operations of Homes for children/ disables/ senior citizens/ destitute/ women /widows; Observation homes; pensions.
h. Agencies engaged in procurement of agriculture products, including MSP operations.
i. `Mandis' operated by the Agriculture Produce Market Committee or as notified by the State Government.
The above offices (SI. No 1 & 2) should work with minimum number of employees. All other offices may continue to work-from-home only.
3. Hospitals, Veterinary Hospitals and all related medical establishments, including their manufacturing and distribution units, both in public and private sector, such as
dispensaries, chemist, Pharmacies (including Jan Aushadhi Kendra) and medical equipment shops, laboratories, Pharmaceutical research labs, clinics, nursing homes, ambulance etc. will continue to remain functional. The transportation for all medical personnel, nurses, para-medical staff, other hospital support services be permitted.
4. Commercial and private establishments shall be closed down.
Exceptions:
a. Shops, including ration shops (under PDS), dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder, fertilizers, seeds and pesticides. However, district authorities may encourage and facilitate home delivery to minimize the movement of individuals outside their homes.
b. Banks, insurance offices, and ATMs including IT vendors for banking operations; Banking Correspondent and ATM operation and cash management agencies.
c. Print and electronic media.
d. Telecommunications, internet services, broadcasting and cable services. IT and IT enabled Services only (for essential services) and as far as possible to work from home.
e. Delivery of all essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment through E-commerce.
f. Petrol pumps, LPG, Petroleum and gas retail and storage outlets.
g. Power generation, transmission and distribution units and services.
h. Capital and debt market services as notified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
i. Cold storage and warehousing services.
j. Private security services.
k. Data and call centers for Government activities only.
l. Farming operations by farmers and farm workers in the field.
m. 'Custom Hiring Centres (CHC)' related to farm machinery.
n. Shops of agriculture machinery, its spare parts (including its supply chain) and repairs to remain open.
o. Shops for truck repairs on highways, preferably at fuel pumps.
p. Operations of the fishing (marine)/aquaculture industry, including feeding & maintenance; hatcheries, feed plants, commercial aquaria, movement of fish/shrimp and fish products, fish seed/feed and workers for all these activities.
All other establishments may work-from-home only.
5. Industrial Establishments will remain closed.
Exceptions:
a. Manufacturing units of essential goods, medical devices, their raw materials
b. Production units, which require continuous permission from the State Government.
c. Coal and mineral production, transportation, supply of explosives and activities incidental to mining operations.
d. Manufacturing units of packaging material for food items, drugs, pharmaceutical and medical devices.
e. Manufacturing and packaging units of Fertilizers, Pesticides and Seeds.
f. Tea industry, including plantation with maximum of 50% workers.
6. All transport services — air, rail, roadways — will remain suspended.
Exceptions:
a. Transportation for essential goods only.
b. Fire, law and order and emergency services.
c. Operations of Railways, Airports and Seaports for cargo movement, relief and evacuation and their related operational organisations.
d. Inter-state movement of goods/ cargo for inland and exports.
e. Cross land border movement of essential goods including petroleum products and LPG, food products, medical supplies.
f. Intra and inter-state movement of harvesting and sowing related machines like combined harvester and other agriculture/horticulture implements.
7. Hospitality Services to remain suspended
Exceptions:
a. Hotels, home stays, lodges and motels, which are accommodating tourists and persons stranded due to lockdown, medical and emergency staff, air and sea crew.
b. Establishments used/ earmarked for quarantine facilities.
8. All educational, training, research, coaching institutions etc. shall remain closed.
9. All places of worship shall be closed for public. No religious congregations will be permitted, without any exception.
10. All social/ political/ sports/ entertainment/ academic/ cultural/ religious functions /gatherings shall be barred.
11. In case of funerals, congregation of not more than twenty persons will be permitted.
12.AlI persons who have arrived into India after 15.02.2020, and all such persons who have been directed by health care personnel to remain under strict home/ institutional quarantine for a period as decided by local Health Authorities, failing which they will be liable to legal action under Sec. 188 of the IPC.
Exceptions:
a. Release of quarantined persons, who have arrived in India after 15.2.2020, after expiry of their quarantine period and being tested Covid-19 negative.
13. Wherever exceptions to above containment measures have been allowed, the organisations/employers must ensure necessary precautions against COV1D-19
virus, as well as social distance measures, as advised by the Health Department from time to time.
14. In order to implement these containment measures, the District Magistrate will deploy Executive Magistrates as Incident Commanders in the respective local
jurisdictions. The Incident Commander will be responsible for the overall implementation of these measures in their respective jurisdictions. All other line
department officials in the specified area will work under the directions of such incident commander. The Incident Commander will issue passes for enabling
essential movements as explained.
15.All enforcing authorities to note that these strict restrictions fundamentally relate to movement of people, but not to that of essential goods.
16. The Incident Commanders will in particular ensure that all efforts for mobilization of resources, workers and material for augmentation and expansion of hospital
infrastructure shall continue without any hindrance.
17.Any person violating these containment measures will be liable to be proceeded against as per the provisions of Section 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act,
2005, besides legal action under Sec. 188 of the IPC.
Note: As specified in the lockdown measures, social distancing and proper hygiene practices must be ensured in each of the above activities. It will be the responsibility of the head of the organisation/establishment to ensure compliance of such norms. The district authorities will ensure strict enforcement.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (SOP) FOR TRANSIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR FOREIGN NATIONALS STRANDED IN INDIA
Sub-Clause (g) in exception to clause 6
1. It has been brought to the notice of this Ministry that a number of foreign nationals are stranded in different parts of the country, due to the lockdown measures.
Some foreign countries have approached Government of India for evacuation of their nationals to their countries.
2. In view of the above, it has now been decided that requests received from foreign governments, for evacuation of their nationals from India, would be examined by the
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India on case to case basis. In cases where such requests are endorsed by MEA, the following protocol would be observed:
i) The chartered flight would be arranged by the concerned foreign government in consultation with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India.
ii) Prior to departure. the foreign national(s) would be screened for COVID-19symptoms as per the standard health protocol. Only those foreign national(s) would be allowed to leave, who are asymptomatic for COVID-19. In case of symptomatic person(s), the future course of treatment would be followed, as per the standard health protocol.
iii) The local transportation arrangements from the place of stay of the foreign national(s) to the point of embarkation would be arranged by the local Embassy/Consulate of the respective foreign government.
iv) The transit pass for movement of the vehicle deployed for movement of the foreign national(s) would be issued by the Government of the State/Union Territory where the foreign national(s) is/are staying.
v) The transit pass, as issued above, would be honoured/ allowed by the authorities of the State/Union Territories along the transit route.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR RELEASE OF QUARANTINED PERSONS, AFTER EXPIRY OF QUARANTINE PERIOD AND TESTED COVID-19 NEGATIVE
Sub-Clause (A) in exception to clause 12
With a view to preventing spread of COVID-19 and as a measure of abundant precaution, persons returning from foreign locations after 15.2.2020 had been
quarantined in government/government-arranged facilities. In respect of these persons, the following protocol would be observed after completion of the specified mandatory quarantine period:
i) Person(s) testing negative for COVID-19, and as per standard health protocol, would be released from the said quarantine facility(ies).
However, this will not apply to a group, where even one person test positive for COVID-19.
ii) These persons are expected to return to their homes, or to the homes of their families/relatives/friends or to other places of shelter like hotels, etc., by making their own transport arrangements.
iii) The transit pass for movement of vehicle(s), being used by such person(s), would be issued by the Government of the State/Union Territory where they have been quarantined.
iv) The transit pass will be issued for fixed route and with specified validity and such person(s) shall follow the same.
v) The transit pass, as issued above, would be honoured/ allowed by the authorities of the State/Union Territories along the transit route.
vi) As a measure of abundant caution, upon returning to their destination such persons would home quarantine themselves for a further period of 14 days as per standard protocol on the matter.
vii) Detaiis of person(s) released from quarantine, along with their destination, will be shared with the concerned State/UT Government for necessary follow up.
