Coronavirus Pandemic LIVE Updates: As India gears up to enter phase 4 of the Covid-19 lockdown, over 30 municipal areas have been identified in 12 states where maximum restrictions are likely to be imposed as the country surpasses China’s rally with over 85,000 cases. According to officials, to chalk out the plan for curbs, the Union health secretary will have a meeting with district medical officers of the selected 30 areas in states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha.
The selected municipal areas are: Brihanmumbai or Greater Mumbai, Greater Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thane, Delhi, Indore, Pune, Kolkata, Jaipur, Nashik, Jodhpur, Agra, Tiruvallur, Aurangabad, Cuddalore, Greater Hyderabad, Surat, Chengalpattu, Ariyalur, Howrah, Kurnool, Bhopal, Amritsar, Villupuram, Vadodara, Udaipur, Palghar, Berhampur, Solapur and Meerut.The guidelines for phase four of lockdown will be issued today and are expected to be focused on migrant labourers who have been hit the hardest due to the lockdown.
In a bid to regulate the exodus of migrants from cities, Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Disaster Management Authority have come up with a portal ‘National Migrant Information system’ to document the labourers and facilitate their transport.
In a fresh letter to states, the Union Home Secretary has asked states to use the portal for better inter-state coordination on the migrant movement issue. “The system will help in speedy communication between states without creating additional work for field officers. It has additional advantage like contact tracing, which may be useful in Covid response work,” he said. The portal seeks Aadhaar and mobile details to help migrants travel in Shramik trains and keep a track on them.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation on Monday, had said that the lockdown 4.0 will have a “completely different form”, with new rules. “No state wants complete withdrawal of lockdown but all want gradual resumption of economic activities,” the official said
