Containment zones may be cut by half if Centre accepts Delhi govt proposal on easing restrictions post May 17

NEW DELHI: If the government is able to announce some relaxations once the lockdown comes to an end on May 17, nearly half of Delhi’s 78-odd containment zones may have good chance of coming out of the hard lockdown over the next few days. As per Delhi government sources, if the Centre does not tweak its policy of listing districts and not specific localities as red zones, the Capital will mostly remain a red zone with limited relaxations beyond May 18. “The government has proposed a new concept which will help to ensure relaxation in majority of areas. If thing go well, state government will get the go ahead, otherwise it will be a setback. If Centre doesnot change the concept, entire Delhi will remain under red zone hence no economic activity can take place,” said the sources.

According to sources in the know, in an internal meeting, Delhi LG Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal articulated their reservations about the health ministry’s one-sizefits-all approach that applies the same formula to a district in a metro such as Delhi and a rural district in Odisha or Chhattisgarh. “Delhi government has asked the Centre about the plan and are hopefull about this,” the government sources said.

At Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s marathon video conference with chief ministers on Monday, many states had made the point that the lockdown should continue only in containment zones and people living outside this hotspot should be encouraged to get on with their lives and resume economic activity.

An official said that some amount of autonomy to define a containment zone would also go a long way. For example, he said they have placed 2,600 people under a hard lockdown in Pratap Khand, Shiva Khand and Govind Khand of Jhilmil colony though cases had been reported from only Pratap Khand part of this locality.

According to the government report, of the 78 containment zones in the national Capital, COVID-19 cases were being reported from only 39. The remaining containment zones have not reported a single case over the last fortnight and would be taken out of the containment zone policy if this trend continues.

But under the existing red, orange and green classification of districts, this would not help. Because the remaining 39 containment zones are spread across 10 of 11 districts of Delhi.