Restaurants, hotels, shopping malls and religious places will be allowed to re-open from June 8 in Chandigarh. The Chandigarh Administration on Friday circulated the standard operating procedure issued by Central Government for hospitality services and religious places to ensure Covid-19 safety protocols.
Manoj Parida, Adviser to UT Administrator said that as decided by Government of India, all shopping malls, religious places, hotels and restaurants will be opened from June 8 onwards in the union territory of Chandigarh. For this, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is already circulated by Health Department and will be strictly enforced, he said.
As per the SOPs, adequate crowd and queue management is to be ensured in hotels and restaurants. Not more than 50 per cent of seating capacity should be permitted. Staff or waiters should wear mask and hand gloves. Seating arrangement should ensure adequate social distancing between patrons as far as feasible. Contactless mode of ordering and digital mode of payment should be encouraged.
Tables should be sanitised each time a customer leaves, the SOP stated
Under unlock 1.0, the Administration had on Monday announced a slew of relaxations, including opening of barber shops and salons, extending shop timings by two hours and opening of shopping malls, restaurants, hotels and religious places.
While earlier the shops timings were staggered, and for most shops it was between 10 am to 6 pm, now the shops are allowed to open from 10 am to 8 pm in the city.
FIXED ELECTRICITY CHARGES WAIVED OFF FOR 2 MONTHS IN CHANDIGARH
Giving a relief to city residents, the Chandigarh Administration on Friday decided to waive off 25 percent of the fixed electricity charges for two and half months upto June 15 for all categories of consumers.
The decision was taken during the meeting held by Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Bandore. The fixed charges are being charged separately, over and above the consumption charges. These charges range from Rs 30/kW/month to Rs 200/kW/month.
Of the 2.25 lakh power consumers, 1.75 lakh are residential users in the city. Many consumers including commercial are facing financial crisis due to lockdown amid Coronavirus pandemic.
The city’s industry and business establishments, bearing the brunt due to lockdown had demanded waiver of fixed charges, fuel and power purchase cost adjustment (FPPCA) charges and other charges in electricity bills for entire financial year 2020-21. Recently, the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission had approved no hike in power tariff for financial year 2020-21 in the city.
UT ASKS NEIGHBOURING STATES NOT TO SEND PATIENTS WITHOUT TESTING
UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore on Friday directed the Administration to ensure that the neighboring states do not send patients to Chandigarh without testing. He asked UT Principal Secretary Health to inform the neighbouring states not to send patients to Chandigarh without prior Covid-19 testing, so that inter-state infection is avoided.
During the meeting, it was informed that GMSH- Sector 16 had dealt with 4,000 OPD cases on Thursday. He desired that all medical institutions must gradually enhance their OPD services, so that normalcy in medical services could be restored.
LONG ROUTE BUSES TO BEGIN FROM JUNE 8
Chandigarh Transport Undertaking is all set to start its long route bus operation from June 6 onwards subject to permission from Chandigarh Administration from ISBT-43. Buses will be operated from point to point i.e. source (origin) to destination station with 50 percent passengers capacity and no boarding or de-boarding of passengers en-route the journey will be allowed, said an official spokesman.
Passengers can book their tickets only through online bus reservation management system. No night bus service is planned as of now, he said.
As a preventive measure, thermal screening of passengers will be done at ISBT-43, buses will be operated with 50 percent occupancy only, sanitization of the buses will be done twice at start of trip and end of the trip, the spokesman added. Last month, the CTU had started bus service in the tricity.
FINES RANGING FROM Rs 500-3000 IN CHD FOR VIOLATING COVID-19 SAFETY NORMS
People violating the Covid-19 safety protocols will now have to shell anything between Rs 500 to Rs 3000 as penalty in the union territory of Chandigarh.
Earlier on June 2, the Administration had decided to slap a fine of Rs 500 on residents not wearing a mask in public places. From now onwards, the residents violating the home quarantine instructions will have to pay a fine of Rs 2000.
For spitting at public places, the violators will be fined Rs 500, stated the UT’s latest order. For violation of social distancing norms by owners of shops and commercial places, they will be charged Rs 500 fine.
Apart from this, for violation of social distancing norms by bus owners, they will be fined Rs 3000. A fine of Rs 2000 will be imposed on car owners for the violation of social distancing protocol while auto-rickshaw owners and two-wheelers, will have to pay Rs 500 as penalty.