PUDUCHERRY: A decision to relax the lockdown in a phased manner in Puducherry will be taken at a cabinet meeting on May 3, based on the central government's direction and the decisions taken by Tamilnadu government in this regard, Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said.
Briefing newspersons, Narayanasamy said that the central government is planning to relax the lockdown, but is yet to send guidelines in this regard to Puducherry.
The intention of the government is to safeguard the people as well as protect their livelihoods.
At the same time, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam regions of the union territory, which are COVID-19 free with no cases reported for the last 25 days, are surrounded by red zones, Narayanaswamy noted.
Similarly, Puducherry, which has three active cases, is also surrounded by the red zones of Tamil Nadu.
Relaxing the lockdown will help revive the economy of Puducherry, the CM said, but added that there should not be any compromise made when it comes to the lives of the people.
Stating that one of the three COVID-19 patients in the Union Territory had tested positive for the sixth time despite being otherwise normal, the CM said he had requested senior medical officers to get in touch with ICMR and find out if any alternate medicine could be used.
Narayanaswamy said steps are being taken to bring back people from Puducherry stranded in different states and abroad and added that for this purpose a committee has been constituted in the Mahe region to register the list of those stranded.
Such facilities will also be arranged in Puducherry, Karaikal and Yanam regions where relatives could register details of their near and dear which would then be forwarded to the Union Home Ministry and External Affairs Ministry.
The Chief Minister said that a Standard Operating Procedure(SOP) has been formulated for industries that wanted to start functioning and orders have been issued to grant permission forthwith to those shops fulfilling requirements.
The representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and federation of trade and industry had met the CM and requested him to permit them to open their shops.
Since getting permission after applying to the municipal commissioner will take time and considering the fact that there are over 10,000 shops, the chief secretary and district collector had been advised to give them permission on the basis of their license after insisting they follow the SOP formulated by the government, Narayanaswamy said.
Inspections could be conducted and action will be taken in case of violations, the Chief Minister said, adding that the meeting of the Disaster Management Authority on Monday next will review the number of permissions granted and will take steps to change rules if needed.