Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has ordered total lockdown in the state till March 31, barring essential services, amid spiralling coronavirus cases in the country.
The Chief Minister's Office issued a press note late Saturday evening, announcing the lockdown from Marc 22 to March 31 in order to check the spread of deadly coronavirus that has claimed over 11,500 lives worldwide so far.
All the government and private offices, malls, shops, factories and public transport will be closed. The decision came after the chief minister chaired a review meeting over the coronavirus situation in the state.
The chief minister has directed the officials to ensure supply of sufficient food items during the lockdown. He has instructed that more than one crore families linked to the National Food Security Act should be given wheat for free till May.
Gehlot has also instructed to provide free packets of essential food items for two months from April 1 to street vendors, daily wage labourers and such needy families who are outside the NFSA list in urban areas. These packets will be made available in collaboration with district administration and municipalities.
The Chief Minister has appealed that no worker should be removed from their job in the closed factories during the lockdown and they should be given paid leave for this period. For this, he directed the Labour Department to keep in touch with factory managers.
The chief minister said that all types of pensioners do not have to face financial problems in the situations arising from the coronavirus, hence the distribution of social security pension to the beneficiaries will be done by the first week of April.
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