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The Delhi government decided to ask the Center to clarify the type of stores that can be opened amid the ongoing national blockade. The clarification will be raised by Chief Secretary Vijay Dev in a video conference called by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba that started shortly before.
“We will seek clarification from the central government on the order,” said the person mentioned above on condition of anonymity. On the one hand, the type of stores that the Interior Ministry wants to reopen.
Left alone, the city government was reluctant to allow stores, other than those that sold basic goods, to reopen at this point given the high number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital.
Delhi has reported a total of 2,514 Covid-19 patients as of last night, 128 of them in the past 24 hours. “We need to control the situation first instead of wasting the profits made,” said the official.
Also read: Covid-19 crash: government allows stores to reopen. This is what will open and what will not
But the midnight order from the Home Office took them by surprise.
Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lt. Governor Anil Baijal also discussed the government’s next steps in order of the household ministry.
Also read | Covid-19: what you need to know today
The consensus was that people went ahead to open their stores after accessing the order of the home ministry on the Internet and that it would be impossible to get them to return home.
A Delhi government official upset by the surprise move by the Interior Ministry summed up the dilemma of the city administration, saying they were unable to send the police after merchants closed shops again.
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“I think the Center should have consulted the states … at least given them notice before issuing the orders,” he said.
In an order Friday night, Union Secretary of the Interior Ajay Bhalla had allowed neighborhood stores, independent stores, and residential complex stores to open on the condition that they operate at half force and Apply the rules of social distancing.
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Bhalla issued the order in his capacity as chairman of the National Executive Committee of the National Disaster Management Authority.
For central orders to be implemented, each state authority must issue a separate set of orders to its departments, such as the police and health departments.
On April 19, the Delhi state executive committee chaired by Chief Secretary Vijay Dev had frozen the basic rules of the 2.0 blockade and “decided not to relax further activities until another comprehensive assessment is carried out on April 27.”
