CHANDIGARH (B.S.SHARMA,RANA SHEIKH DAULAT)Chandigarh administration is all set to open hotels, restaurants, religious places, and malls in the first phase of opening the nationwide lock-down, from June 8 onward, as per the guidelines issued by the Government of India. According to the fresh orders, people will be allowed to venture out from 5 am to 9 pm from June 1 onward. For the movement of non-essential items the night curfew will be from 9 pm to 5am.All malls Elante , DLF, Centra, Fun republic are likely to open from June 8. Hotel chains, microbreweries, food courts will also open from June 8, but with social distancing rules in place and only till the prescribed time.Saloons and barber shops in Chandigarh will also open from Tuesday, said Manoj Parida, UT adviser. A Standard Operating procedure is being prepared for saloon and barber shop staff. However, these provisions will not be applicable in containment zones, though the affected pockets will be revised.
The UT administration is waiting for the central government’s standard operating procedure for the operations of the same. The UT also plans to impose a fine on people found not wearing masks, not maintaining social-distancing, or found spitting, on the line of Punjab and Haryana. “The MHA orders are binding on UT. We will follow it in letter and spirit. About those areas where discretion has been given, we will decide in war room meeting,” said Parida.
As hotels, restaurants and all other hospitality services are set to open, Principal secretary Home, Arun Kumar Gupta, said that they will be following the central government’s guidelines on opening of these places. “We will go by the Ministry’s guidelines. We have got the orders and we will discuss if something needs to be done at the state or UT level,” he said.
Presently, hotels and restaurants are only allowed to have home delivery services. “Now, because hotels and restaurants will open, there will be guidelines of maintaining distancing, occupying only a certain percentage of the seating capacity. Dance and clubbing in gatherings are likely to not be allowed. We will wait for the SOP by the union government regarding the same and will see if we need to introduce something in it,” said a senior official of the administration. In the war room meeting Chandigarh will take a call on the inter-state movement allowed by the MHA. As per the MHA guidelines, there will be no restriction on inter-state and intra-state movement of persons and goods. Sources said that they too will allow free movement across the border, orders of which will be issued only after the meeting on Sunday but may introduce self-monitoring of health for seven or fourteen days.
