GUWAHATI: Ravi Shankar Prasad, the union minister for law and justice, put up a tweet on April 18 which led to widespread confusion.
"Here is a list of what will remain open all over India with effect from 20th April 2020," he tweeted.
Among the list of activities he wrote that would be functional across the country from April 20 onwards was the opening of commercial and private establishments.
However, the recent guidelines for lockdown 2.0 released by the government of India clearly specifies that only certain activities such as sale of essential goods, public utility services, agriculture and horticulture to name a few would be exempted.
The guidelines clearly specify that establishments such as shopping malls, restaurants, bars, saloons/spas and cinema halls would remain shut during the lockdown period till May 3.
Other activities being allowed are health services, operations of fishing, plantation of tea/coffee, financial sector, online classes, supply of essential goods, industrial establishments, construction activities, private vehicles for emergency services and offices of the government.
However, the union minister made it clear that these allowances will not be given to districts which have been declared containment zones.
Speaking to G Plus regarding the Union Minister's tweet, ADGP Law and Order G P Singh said, "The tweet is general in nature. All specifications of the same are mentioned in the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. I advise people to thoroughly go by the guidelines to understand what all will function from April 20.”
He added that the Assam government will soon release an additional list of guidelines for the state and instead of relaxations, the public might get to face more stringent measures.
Further clarification on the same was provided to G Plus by the Chief Secretary of Assam.
“Private and commercial establishments will not open. Only agricultural activities in rural areas, selected industrial activities, e-commerce will be allowed. Only shops of agriculture machinery and repairs, manufacturing, distribution of fertilizer, pesticides, seeds will be allowed. Food processing industries and brick kiln will be allowed. Food movement by trucks will be allowed," the chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna said adding that the public's impression of private and commercial establishment opening is wrong.
In the same vein, Biswajit Pegu, Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup (M) said, "We will continue to enforce the lockdown as before. Certain exceptions would be given to repair shops and suppliers but not beyond that."
As soon as the union minister tweeted that private and commercial establishments will open, people from various sections started raising various questions as the ambit of private /commercial establishments is huge. Also, with the lockdown on place for private and public service vehicles, a tweet like this has confused not only Assam but the entire country.
