India’s federal Home Ministry has said that several violations of lockdown measures were reported from states, after the lockdown was relaxed in certain essential sectors on Monday, posing a serious health hazard to the public.
A spokesperson of the Ministry said that the federal government has set up six inter-ministerial central teams (IMCT) to make on the spot assessments of the situation, and issue necessary directions to states.
IMCT will to focus on compliance & implementation of #lockdown measures as per guidelines; supply of essential commodities; #SocialDistancing; preparedness of the health infrastructure, safety of health professionals & conditions of the relief camps for labour & poor people
— Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) April 20, 2020
On Sunday, the federal Home Ministry cautioned the states that “State/UT Governments shall not dilute these guidelines under the Disaster Management Act 2005 in any manner and shall strictly enforce the same.”
It further told states that “It has come to notice that some of the States/UTs are issuing orders allowing activities which have not been allowed as per guidelines issued by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) under the Disaster Management Act, 2005."
The federal Home Ministry specifically wrote to Kerala, warning about the dilution of its guidelines, saying “....it is observed that the GoK (Government of Kerala) has allowed opening of activities which are prohibited....” and asked the state to rectify it.
But Kerala Minister K. Surendran claimed that the federal Government might have asked for an explanation “due to some misunderstanding”.
We've given relaxations abiding by directions issued by Centre. Centre may have asked for an explanation, due to some misunderstanding. Once we give an explanation, I hope the issue will be solved. We followed all norms set by the Centre: Kerala Minister Kadakampally Surendran pic.twitter.com/jmMG0UTG72
— ANI (@ANI) April 20, 2020
As of Monday, India had 14,175 active cases of COVID-19. This was in addition to 2,546 recovered patients and 543 deaths, according to data released by the federal Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
