PUNE: The district disaster management authorities in the state will review the restrictions due to the pandemic every Friday, based on positivity rate and oxygen bed availability.
The decisions taken would translate into orders applicable at the local level.
Aseem Gupta, principal secretary, state relief and rehabilitation department, told TOI the government will, therefore, not need to issue periodic orders, even as the existing lockdown order ends on June 15.
‘District-level weekly review of curbs to continue’However, Gupta said the government may issue orders to fill gaps in its June 4 diktat regarding sectors like tourist and religious places, besides education.
Gupta said the local-level orders would be applicable from Monday to Sunday after the Friday review.
He said it was decided to have a 7-day reconsideration period, and not 15 days, as the latter could be too long should cases rise and fresh restrictions need to be imposed.
Asked whether this weekly “stop-and-start” method would cause confusion among citizens and traders, Gupta said, “The local administration may think of a 15-day reconsideration period when the positivity trend is downward but 7 days when the trend is upward.” Earlier, the restrictions were uniformly applied across Maharashtra, Gupta said.
“This lead to a fresh debate each time restrictions were imposed, leading to speculation and also delay in reacting to the virus spread.
The June 4 order has tried to resolve such issues,” he said.
“Now, different districts are treated differently depending upon the seriousness of the spread in their jurisdictions.
The levels of restrictions are tied to parameters that are known to citizens, who appreciate that the government imposes curbs only when the situation goes out of hand,” Gupta said.
On traders getting affected by periodic reviews, Gupta said the state understands their problems but does not expect they would be required to switch on and off every week.
“For places falling in the first three levels, most shops would be allowed to stay open.
The only changes are the time for which they can stay open and weekend restrictions.
These levels will not fluctuate every week.
However, if the Covid spread goes out of hand, restrictions will be back,” he added.
In Pune city, the night-time curbs on people’s movements are in effect from 10.30pm since Monday.
In neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad, the police have clairied that the the restrictions would be enforced from 6pm.