All shops, eateries to remain open till 9pm
CHANDIGARH : Taking cognisance of the suggestions of several Congress MLAs and the advice of medical experts, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday announced some relaxations in the lockdown timings in urban areas and allowed opening of non-essential shops on Saturdays. The shops can now remain open from Monday to Saturday till 9pm. Night curfew will be in place in all cities and towns from 9.30pm to 5am.
Hotels and restaurants will be allowed to remain open on all days, including Sundays, till 9 pm, after which home delivery of food will be allowed, as per the revised guidelines.
Non-essential item shops can open on Saturdays
It has also been decided to align opening of non-essential shops in Mohali with the rest of the tricity (Chandigarh and Panchkula), said the chief minister.
The decisions were announced by the CM during his second round of virtual meeting with party MLAs to discuss the Covid situation. Amarinder told the MLAs that Dr KK Talwar, who heads the state government’s expert group on Covid, had advised easing of the relaxations with precautions.
Responding to complaints of shopkeepers getting inflated electricity bills even though their
shops were closed for months, the CM directed the electricity department to issue bills as per the actual meter reading.
He also announced cash compensation of ₹1,500 for construction workers who test positive or whose immediate family members get infected. He asked the Congress MLAs to take the lead in distribution of free food packets to poor corona patients in quarantine and ensure such families have enough ration for at least 7-10 days.
During the meeting, the CM directed the MLAs and ministers to aggressively counter the negative propaganda being spread by certain anti-social elements on Covid testing and organ harvesting.
He also asked the MLAs to visit their constituencies and hospitals to boost the morale of
the people. The meeting was attended by health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu and rural development minister Tript Singh Bajwa, medical education minister OP Soni, around 25 MLAs and top officials.
Teams for distribution of food packets
The CM also gave nod for formation of committees under the DCs for distribution of food packets to poor families under home quarantine, in order to encourage testing as such families generally refrained from getting themselves tested for fear of losing their earnings.
The CM directed all government labs to start providing the Cycle Threshhold (CT) value of an RT-PCR test as it can give useful information to the doctors treating a Covid patient.