Kerala on Monday rolled back some
of its relaxations vis-a-vis the ongoing lockdown after the Centre's objection to 'dilution' of curbs, while Tamil Nadu and Karnataka said they would not scale down restrictions in force as part of their fight against the spread of COVID19.
Kerala revised its decision to open up restaurants and MSMEs and operate public transport.
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu belied any expectations of easing the curbs, although the BJP and AIADMK governments in the respective states armed themselves with some elbow room to revise the curbs should the need arise.
Karnataka houses the country's IT capital Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu boasts of a robust manufacturing sector.
Expectations were high in both states of easing of the curbs to allow select sectors to resume operations from today.
The two states joined a list of others like Punjab and Delhi which made it clear there was no relaxing the curbs, even as Telangana had on Sunday extended the ongoing lockdown to May 7, four days beyond the Centre's scheduled deadline.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier announced extending the lockdown till May 3 to stem the spread of the pandemic, the Centre later said states can decide on April 20 over relaxing the curbs regarding certain sectors.
The CPI(M) ruled Kerala, which announced relaxing some curbs on Sunday, however, decided not to allow plying of buses in cities, opening of restaurants and pillion riding on two- wheelers after the Centre took strong objection to the easing of restrictions.
The Centre shot off a letter to the state government, coming down heavily for its decision to allow opening of restaurants, bus travel in cities and opening of MSME units in urban areas, saying it amounts to dilution of the lockdown guidelines and also a Supreme Court observation.
Initially calling it a "misunderstanding" due to which the Centre had objected to easing of the lockdown protocol to control coronavirus, the government later decided to roll back some of the relaxations and Chief Secretary Tom Jose asserted that the Centre and the states "are in this fight (against coronavirus) together".
The decision was taken at a meeting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan held with Jose on Monday, official sources said, adding, a formal notification on the rollback of the curbs will be made today.
Only take away will be allowed in restaurants and barber shops will remain shut, the sources told PTI.
The Union Home Secretary, in a letter to the Kerala chief secretary, objected to the additional relaxations, saying it amounted to "dilution" of lockdown guidelines issued on April 15 under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
It said Kerala had on April 17 circulated revised guidelines for lockdown measures which allowed opening of activities that are prohibited in the Centre's consolidated guidelines issued after the national lockdown was extended till May 3.
The Kerala government had earlier decided to give relaxations in some COVID-19 restictions in Green and Orange B zones. These included allowing private vehicles movement in an odd-even basis and dine-in services at hotels from Monday.
State Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran admitted there was some "misunderstanding" due to which the centre had objected to relaxations, but insisted that the easing of curbs was done in accordance with the Centre's guidelines.
Long queues of vehicles, including in hotspots, were witnessed as lockdown restrictions were eased in some places.
At Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam border at Kilimanoor, a long line of four-wheelers was seen this morning in violation of the restrictions despite ban on inter-district travel.
The BJP-ruled Karnataka also decided to keep the curbs on, but the state cabinet authorised chief minister B S Yediyurappa and the COVID-19 Task Force to meet in three or four days to review and further decide about any relaxation.
The issue was whether to open up the industrial sector, including manufacturing, in areas where there was no virus problem, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said in Bengaluru.
However, as it involved movement of people and transport among other things and the entire state cannot be considered as one unit, the cabinet decided against any relaxations.
"Today cabinet has decided it (the norms) will be extended up to May 3...there will be no relaxation and the situation that exists as of today will continue," he said.
He said there was no restriction on agriculture and horticulture sectors, their marketing and transportation.
The Minister said the cabinet felt the measures should continue for some time, as any relaxation to the small-scale industry or organised sector or rural industry would mean movement of people from outside cannot be stopped.
Tamil Nadu also announced keeping the restrictions in vogue till May 3 so as to take stringent measures for checking further spread of the deadly contagion.
The decision was taken after an expert panel headed by Finance Secretary S Krishnan, tasked with discussing on easing the curbs as well as devising an exit stratgey post May 3, submitted its recommendations to Chief Minister K Palaniswami here.
"The panel's recommendations were carefully assessed.Based on that, to implement stringent measures to prevent further spread of the pandemic, the state government has decided to follow the prohibitory orders, (implemented) according to the State Disaster Management Act 2005 and other curbs till May 3,2020 as announced by the Central government," an official release said.
"After once again assessing the spread of the disease, if there is a dip, due decisions will be taken in lines with the prevailing situation," it said.
Tamil Nadu is one of the worst COVID-19 affected states with 1,520 positive cases and 17 deaths as on April 19.
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