Karnataka to relax lockdown norms from April 23: Order applies only to non-containment zones

Bengaluru, Apr 22: Karnataka has decided to partially relax the coronavirus lockdown from April 23 onwards.

Some of the services that would be allowed would be courier services, construction work and manufacturing of packaging materials.

Chief Secretary, T M Vijay Bhaskar said, to mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities have been allowed which will come into effect from 00.00 hours of April 23, 2020.

The select activities would be allowed only outside COVID-19 containment zones identified by the government.

While public transport will remain suspended until May 3, private vehicles with passes for emergency services and personnel commuting with passes to places of work and back are allowed.

The government has allowed construction of roads, irrigation projects, buildings and all kids of industrial projects, including MSMEs, in rural areas and all kinds of projects in industrial estates, where workers are available on the site. The government also said that no workers will be allowed to be brought in from outside.

Further the order also said that services provided by self-employed persons such as electricians, IT repairs, plumbers, auto mechanic, carpenters etc are allowed.

Further the government has also allowed manufacturing units of essential goods- drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw materials and intermediates-food processing industries in rural areas, coal production and manufacturing units of packaging materials will be allowed.

Flights, buses, metro rail, inter-district, inter-state travel is banned until May 3. Bars, malls, theatres, shopping complexes will remain shut along with religious places.