Lucknow, May 15 (IANS) As the country prepares to enter lockdown 4.0 after May 17, the Yogi Adityanath government is likely to give some concessions and allow some more businesses to operate, albeit with conditions for following safety protocols.
The state government is expected to allow shops selling milk and milk products to open up.
During the lockdown, while local dairies have been severely hit, it is the milk producing giants that sell packaged milk that have benefited.
“In the first month of the lockdown, milk vendors were not allowed to move on the roads and local dairies were left with unsold stocks and suffered huge losses. People opted for packaged milk since the milkman was not available,” said a senior official.
The government now plans to allow sale of milk products from small outlets selling milk products like “lassi”, etc.
The ‘halwai’ association has also appealed to the Chief Minister to allow them to resume business since they belong to the small category.
Shops selling spectacles have also urged the Chief Minister to allow them to reopen shops since eyewear is considered an essential item.
Dentists are also on the list and dental clinics may be allowed to resume functioning on conditions of maintaining social distancing.
Restrictions, however, will continue in hotspots and red zone areas where the lockdown will continue to remain firmly in place.
According to sources, Yogi Adityanath had taken feedback from his ministers during a meeting and majority of them were in favour of continuing with restrictions till the spread of corona was checked effectively.
It is noteworthy that all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh are now corona-infected and hotspots, including Lucknow continue to see a rise in number of corona positive cases.
–IANS
amita/dpb