BENGALURU: The Karnataka government's plan to impose night curfew from December 24 to January 2 between 11 pm and 5 am has been withdrawn just six hours before it was to come into force on Thursday.
According to the official announcement by the CM's Office, the Technical Advisory Committee suggested that a night curfew was not needed. The same opinions were also expressed by officials as well as his cabinet ministers.
This is the third time that a decision was changed on the night curfew. On Tuesday, the CM had categorically denied that there would be night curfew, but on Wednesday morning, the decision suddenly changed and a night curfew was announced from 10 pm to 6 am from Wednesday night itself until January 2.
Then on Wednesday evening, another change came with the curfew scheduled to begin from Thursday until January 2 with the timings shrunk to be between 11 pm and 5 am.
The CM appealed to the public to wear masks, maintain social distancing and avoid stepping out of the house unnecessarily.
He said a new strain of SARS-CoV2 was detected in Britain and in order to stop this, the night curfew decision was taken as per the Technical Advisory Committee. But now, they have said it is not needed and therefore the decision has been taken back.
The state government's earlier decision to restrict gatherings in large numbers for New Year and New Year's eve is still valid.