The Meghalaya government on Tuesday decided to lift the lockdown in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic on April 15, NDTV reported. While a nationwide lockdown is in place till April 14, not a single case of the coronavirus has been reported in the state so far.
All government offices in Meghalaya will start functioning from April 15, and private vehicles will be allowed on roads and agricultural activity will be resumed, the state government said. However, educational institutions will remain closed till April 30. Weekly markets in rural areas will resume while adhering to Covid-19 protocols as prescribed by the health department, the government said.
Private business establishments will not be allowed to be opened.
Under the Chief Minister’s Relief Against Wage Loss scheme, all wage earners, daily labourers and petty traders, who are unemployed during the lockdown period, will be paid Rs 700 per week.
Work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has been allowed to resume immediately, the Hindustan Times reported. “The cabinet has allowed MGNREGA work and permitted farmers to resume agricultural activities with immediate effect,” Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong. Tynsong said that road construction activities sanctioned by the state will also restart from April 15.
But the state government has urged 2,192 residents of Meghalaya, who are stranded in other states due to the lockdown, not to return home till the end of April.
The northeastern states have reported only 32 cases of Covid-19, including 27 in Assam alone. Nationwide, the number of cases rose to 4,421 on Tuesday morning, and the toll to 114, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.