In the absence of a uniform policy for lockdown, the State Government have gone for different approaches amid confusion and uncertainty, triggering, in some cases, the exodus of migrant workers and hoarding and back marketing.
While Maharashtra on Tuesday prepared for complete lockdown, and Jharkhand has announced a seven-day “shut down”, other States have announced night curfew, weekend lockdown, and several other restrictions.
National Capital Delhi is already in the midst of an extended 24x7 curfew till next Monday morning. Uttar Pradesh has refused to implement a High Court order to implement lockdown in five districts and got a stay from the Supreme court.
Maharashtra, the State with the largest positive cases in the country has placed stringent measures of restricting the timing of groceries and shops to curb the crowding but will take a couple of days before completely shutting down the State.
As of now, Maharashtra has tightened curbs, limit timings of grocery shops to 4 hours, 7am-11 am but authorities believe that this too is not effective in checking the virus spread in the State.
According to Maharashtra Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will take a final call on complete lockdown as merely tightening of restrictions are not delivering the desired result.
UP has, on the other hand, taken a contrarian view to the lockdown prescription saying it had to “protect both, lives and livelihoods.”
The Jammu & Kashmir Government on Tuesday ordered the extension of night curfew to all municipal and urban areas due to the rise in the cases of Covid-19.