The Centre on Friday extended the nationwide lockdown to contain COVID19 pandemic for two more weeks, starting May 4.
Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to further extend the lockdown for a period of two weeks.
India was initially under lockdown for 21 days since March 24. The lockdown was later extended up to May 3.
The MHA issued new guidelines to regulate different activities in this period based on risk profiling of the districts of the country into Red (hotspot), Green and Orange zones.
The new set of guidelines has permitted considerable relaxations to the Orange and Green zones, MHA said in a statement.
As per the new guideline, in Orange Zones, inter-district movement of individuals and vehicles will be allowed for permitted activities only.
Four-wheelers will have a maximum of 2 passengers besides the driver and pillion riding will be allowed on two-wheelers, the MHA said.
In Orange Zones, taxis and cab aggregators will be permitted with one driver and one passenger only.
The MHA also clarified that a limited number of activities will remain prohibited across India, irrespective of the zone, including travel by air, rail, metro and inter-state movement by road as well as running of schools, colleges, other educational and training or coaching centres.
“A large number of other activities are allowed in the Red Zones. All industrial and construction activities in rural areas, including MNREGA works, food-processing units and brick-kilns are permitted,” the MHA said.
On 30 April, 2020, the Union Health Ministry had said all major metro cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad would continue to be red zones even after May 3.
The health ministry had asked the state governments and local bodies to demarcate containment areas and buffer zones for strict monitoring of movement.