Telangana government to tweak lockdown rules

Telangana lockdown: As corona positive cases dipped a little after the enforcement of 20-hour lockdown from May 12, the Telangana government, while thinking of extending the lockdown beyond May 21, is likely to consider relaxing the timings of opening of a few business establishments from May 22.

All supermarkets and grocery stores which were selling essential commodities are likely to be permitted to stay open till 6 pm in Hyderabad and other major municipal towns in the state. The timings for other trading centres would remain the same between 6 am and 10 am.

Relaxation will also be given to the cement and other construction material shops to open for extra hours following request from the construction industry.

A decision on the extension of the lockdown and permitting shops to open till evening would be taken at the Cabinet meeting convened by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on May 20.

"The government is not in a mood to continue 20-hour lockdown for all sectors," officials said the Medical and Health department was compiling corona cases data on a daily basis and will prepare a comparative study report on positive cases before and after the lockdown in the state.

"Before May 10, the total number of positive cases were more than 5,500 and the case count has come down to 4,500 per day in the last three days," the authorities said, adding that the government was expecting corona cases would be below 4,000 by May 21, on the last day of the 10-day lockdown.

The State Commercial Taxes department has already been assessing the revenue loss incurred to the exchequer due to the closure of the entire trading activity in the 10-day period, officials said, adding that the revenue loss will be reduced to some extent by permitting all grocery shops and supermarkets open till 6 pm. During the lockdown last year, necessary goods' shops were permitted to open between 8 am and 6 pm.

Besides, the authorities said that people were struggling to buy essential goods in a short duration of relaxation period till 10 am and it caused huge gatherings before the shops. To avoid the inconvenience, the only option before the government is to extend the time of the closure of the shops.