No respite for 15 Red Zone districts in UP even after May 3

The "green" and "orange" zones in Uttar Pradesh are likely to see a gradual easing of the lockdown from May 4 but no respite is expected for the 15 districts in the Red Zone.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked officials to prepare a plan for allowing economic activity in "green" and "orange" zones after May 3. However, he has reiterated that no social gathering will be permitted in the state till June 30.

According to the official spokesman, the fifteen districts that are presently in the Red Zone, however, will not witness any relaxation in lockdown rules.

These include Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Noida, Moradabad, Firozabad, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Rae Bareli, Bijnor, Shamli, Amroha and Basti.

UP Chief Secretary R.K. Tiwari has directed all district magistrates to issue permissions to MSMEs in the rural areas, which are not in hotspots, for resuming work at the earliest.

The Chief Secretary, in his letter, said, "Identify hotspots in your areas and give permission to rural MSMEs which are located outside of these to start functioning. Direct them to follow the orders issued by the home and health departments for maintaining social distancing, sanitization etc. Health officials can inspect these units regularly to ensure that protocols are being followed while workers should be scanned thermally to ensure that nobody is suffering from any illness."

Various departments like industries have been told to prepare a plan to start allowing economic activity. Units involved in production of medical supplies, personal protection equipment, sanitizers, along with 11 other industries like steel, food processing will be allowed to function while maintaining safety protocols.

Construction activity is also being promoted in the state and brick kilns have been permitted to start operations. The Chief Minister has already stated that trucks carrying construction material, including bricks, will be allowed to move.

Meanwhile, fifteen districts in Uttar Pradesh that can hope for some relaxation in the lockdown after May 3 if the same is not extended, are those that are in the green zone.

The districts that have not reported even a single Corona case and are in the green zone, include Ambedkar Nagar, Amethi, Ballia, Deoria, Chitrakoot, Farrukhabad, Kanpur Dehat, Siddharth Nagar, Kushinagar, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Chandauli and Sonbhadra.

Stand-alone shops in these areas, according to official sources, could open in a phased manner though large markets and shopping malls will remain closed.