The Maharashtra government on Friday announced more restrictions short of a shut down in the state. The measures included shutting down of all non essential services in the state including private offices. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray flanked by Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta and State Health Minister Rajesh Tope in a televised address said that the government had appealed for people to stop over crowding in public spaces, trains and buses. However while the advices was heeded, there needs to be more reduction in crowds.

“We have now decided to shut down all non essential services in Mumbai Metropolitan region as well as Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Nagpur till the end of this month... Grocery shops, Milk shops, Banks will be functioning and will be exempt.”said the Chief Minister. The move would be implemented from 12 tonight.

He added that the state had an option to shut down trains and buses however it would have impacted the doctors, BMC staff and other personnel required to tackle the threat of the coronavirus and hence the government is not ‘stopping these services as of now’.

Uddhav explained why he needed to do this step. “ We have no weapons to fight this thing (virus) except social distancing and hence we have decided to take this step.. The next 15 days are going to very crucial for us.”

The Chief Minster said that government offices which was already working 50% of their capacity will now be working at just 25% of their total strength. For private offices Uddhav said, “They will have to work from home and those who cannot, they have no option but to go for a complete shut down till the end of this month.”

The Chief Minister said that the state government is planning for a financial plan on account of the losses of the state. Appealing to those establishments being shut to ‘not lose their humanity’ Uddhav asked the owners of the establishments to pay the salaries of their employees.

Uddhav said that the list of the establishments that would be shut down would soon be released by the government but also be decided by local authorities in different municipal corporations and collectors.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the government has decided to take the steps as there were still crowds in local trains and buses. “ We decided to do this because if you shut down offices and establishments then you have no reason to use trains and buses. However if we see that in the next two days there is no improvement in the crowds then we would have to shut down trains and buses.”said Tope.

Meanwhile Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said that all exams from 1st to 8th standard of the state board have been cancelled.

Source & Courtesy: The Economic Times