Bengaluru lockdown guidelines: What\'s permitted, what\'s not

With mounting pressure on the health infrastructure of Karnataka where hospitals are running out of beds and Covid positive cases are swelling up, the government has imposed lockdown from Tuesday that will remain in force upto 5 am on July 22.

Any person violating these lockdown measures and the National Directives for COVID-I9 management will have to face legal consequences.

However, there have been several questions from the citizens if the flights will be grounded during the lockdown.

Only flights and trains already scheduled will continue to operate during the Lockdown period. Flight and train tickets shall serve as passes for movement of persons by taxis/cab aggregators/auto rickshaws to board flight and trains.

No new flights or trains will be permitted.

The offices of the State Government and their autonomous bodies, corporations will be closed during the lockdown period.

The offices have been asked to allow their staffers to work from home.  

The exceptions outside the containment zone have been given to the operation of health, medical education, police, home guards, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster management, BBMP, and prisons.

The offices operating and maintaining essential services such as Electricity, Water, Sanitation will be operational. However, the secretariat offices in Vidhana Soudha, Vikas Soudha and MS Building with 50% strength.

Courts and offices related to judicial work shall operate as per the existing guidelines issued by the Karnataka High Court.

There will be unrestricted movement of all types of goods through trucks (including empty trucks/goods vehicle), railways and air.

Within the lockdown period, there will be a complete prohibition on the operations of metro rail services, taxis (including auto rickshaws) and services of cab aggregators, except while hired for emergency.

While the academic institutions and schools continue to remain closed, the government has allowed the scheduled examinations to be taken up by the students.  

The hotels and hospitality services are allowed only for housing health/ police/ Government officials/ healthcare workers/stranded persons including tourists and for quarantine facilities.

However, hotels and restaurants shall be permitted to operate kitchens for take away/home delivery of food items only. The malls will once again be closed and all social, political, sports, entertainment parks, theatres, bars and auditoriums will be closed.

The places of worship will also be closed and religious congregations are prohibited.

Movement under essential services:

There will be no movement of people by KSRTC, BMTC, private buses or passenger vehicles. The Inter-State and Intra-State movement of passenger vehicles, only in cases of emergencies and the movement will be allowed after obtaining valid paas through Seva Sindhu portal

Use of Aarogya Setu application:
With a view to protect the vulnerable persons above 65 years of age, persons with co-morbidities, pregnant women, and children below the age of 10 years they are advised to stay at home, except for essential and health purposes.

BBMP and District authorities have been asked to advise individuals to install the Aarogya Setu application on compatible mobile phones and regularly
update their healthstatus on the app.

Containment Zones

In Containment Zones, only essential activities shall be allowed. There will be strict perimeter control to ensure that there is no movement of people in or out of these zones, except for medical emergencies and for maintaining supply of essential goods and services.  In the Containment Zones, there shall be intensive contact tracing, quarantine watch, house-to-house surveillance, home isolation watch and other clinical interventions, as required.

Exceptions (outside containment zone):

The shops including ration shops (PDS) dealing with food and groceries fruits and vegetables dairy and milk booths to open only from 5 am to 12 noon. The guidelines say that the home delivery of essential items shall be encouraged to minimize movement of individuals outside their homes.

1- Banks, insurance offices and ATM.
2- Print and electronic media.
3- Telecommunication, internet services, broadcasting and cable services, IT and IT enabled services with minimum staff for essential purposes. As far possible work from home should be encouraged.
4- Delivery of essential items such as food, medicines, pharmaceuticals,
medical equipment through E-Commerce.
5- Power generation, transmission and distribution units and services.
6- Capital and debt market services and notified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
7- Cold storage and warehousing services.
8- Private security services.
9-Delivery of goods by E-Commerce companies

All health services(including AYUSH and Veterinary Hospitals) to remain functional even outside the containment zones. The construction pertaining to medical/health infrastructure and the movement (inter and intra State, inter and intra district) of all medical, paramedics, nurses, scientists, lab technicians, mid-wives and other hospital support services will be allowed.