Amit Shah dials all State CMs to discuss post-lockdown strategy as May 31 deadline nears

As India's fourth phase of lockdown nears its end, Home Minister Amit Shah, on Thursday, has spoken to all state Chief Ministers regarding the post-lockdown strategy of their respective states, as per sources. Earlier in the day, Union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba held a meeting with Municipal Commissioners, District Magistrates of 13 cities worst hit by COVID-19 pandemic to review the situation. Currently, India's COVID-19 tally stands at 158333 cases, 6692 recoveries and 4531 deaths.

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Centre reviews 13 worst-hit cities

Gauba reviewed the measures taken by the officials and the staff of the municipal corporations for the management of COVID-19 cases. The 13 cities are Mumbai (Maharashtra), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Delhi (UT), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Thane (Maharashtra), Pune (Maharashtra), Hyderabad (Telangana), Kolkata/Howrah (West Bengal), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Chengalpattu (Tamil Nadu) and Thiruvallur (Tamil Nadu). These comprise for 70% of the total cases in the country.

Gauba stressed that containment zones are to be geographically defined based on factors like mapping of cases and contacts and their geographical dispersion. While municipal corporations can decide if residential colonies, mohallas, municipal wards or police-station areas, municipal zones, towns can be designated as containment zones, the cities were advised that the area should be appropriately defined by the district administration and local urban body with technical inputs from the local level. All chief secretaries of the corresponding states attended the meeting.

Centre extends nationwide Coronavirus lockdown till May 31 as cases soar to 90927

India under lockdown

On May 17, the Centre announced the extension of India's nationwide Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown till May 31.  The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has released its detailed guidelines for the extended lockdown, allowing the delineation of red, green and orange zones as per state and UT governments, taking the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) into consideration. Since then, several states have released their own state guidelines - most easing the lockdown. 

Centre consults with States & UTs as lockdown 4.0 nears end; future strategy discussed

PM Modi has announced a Rs 20 lakh crore economic package - including the previous monetary package and the liquidity measures announced by RBI till date (amounting to 10.26 lakh crore) to kickstart Indian economy's growth. Since then FM Sitharaman has announced a slew of reforms in five parts to strengthen MSMEs, migrants, street vendors, urban poor, agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing.  She has also announced sectoral reforms in Coal, defence production, minerals, civil aviation (Airports, Airspace Mgmt & MRO), power distribution in UTs, Space, atomic energy and reformed MGNREGA, education and a new PSE policy. 

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