The Maharashtra government onSunday announced that shops selling non-essential commodities, including liquor, will be allowed to open from Monday in the COVID-19 non-containment zones across the state.Senior IAS officer from the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Office (CMO), Bhushan Gagrani, told this to reporters on Sunday.A similar decision had already been announced for the COVID-19 green and orange zones, and such shops in these two zones were scheduled to open from Monday.However, the state government on Sunday extended the easing of restrictions for shops in the red zones as well."Even in the red zone districts, there are some areas where coronavirus infection has been not prevalent since over a month now. These areas are known as non-containment zones."Such non-containment areas will have some relaxation, where shops selling non-essential commodities, like clothes, footwear, liquor, stationery, among others will be opened," Gagrani said.The decision has been taken after discussions with the Centre, he said."Only five shops in one lane will be allowed to operate during the entire day. But this particular restriction is not applicable to the shops selling essential items such as medical and grocery. As of now, there are no restrictions on the timing of the shops to remain open," Gagrani said.Sale of liquor in standalone shops will be allowed, he said.However, social distancing norms have to be followed by all the shops."To maintain social distancing, only a limited number of shops will be opened from Monday," he added.The timing of the shops will be finalised by the local authorities, such as municipal commissioners as well as district collectors, he said.
