Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has announced a 15 day intensive restriction, but with humane angle unlike the mindless lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year. The restrictions will remain in force throughout the state of Maharashtra from 8 PM on 14th April 2021 till 7 AM on 1st May, 2021.
The state is imposing Section 144 and Night Curfew. People are not allowed to move in a public place without valid reasons. All the establishments, public places, activities, services shall remain closed, except the ones which are exempted. The services and activities mentioned in Essential Category are exempted and their movements and operations are to be unrestricted. A set of services and activities mentioned in Exceptions Category are exempted from 7 AM to 8 PM on working days and their movements and operations are to be unrestricted during these periods. The decision regarding inclusion of domestic help, drivers and attendants to work in the exceptions category will be taken by the local authorities based on local conditions.
Essential Category includes:
1) Hospitals, diagnostic centers, Clinics, vaccinations, Medical insurance offices, Pharmacies, Pharmaceutical companies, other medical and health services including supporting manufacturing and distribution units along with their dealers, transport and supply chain. Manufacturing and distribution of vaccines, sanitizers, masks, medical equipment, their ancillaries, raw material units and support services.
2) Veterinary Services/ Animal Care shelters and pet food shops
3) Groceries, Vegetables Shops, fruit vendors, dairies, bakeries, confectionaries, all type of food shops.
4) Cold Storage and Warehousing services
5) Public Transport: Airplanes, Trains, Taxis, Autos and public buses.
6) Services related to functioning of offices of Diplomats of various countries
7) Pre Monsoon Activities by local authorities
8) All Public Services by local authorities.
9) Reserve Bank of India and services designated by RBI as essential
10) All offices of SEBI recognized market infrastructure institutions such as Stock Exchanges, depositories, clearing corporations etc and other intermediaries registered with SEBI
1 1) Services required for restoration/ maintenance of telecom services
12) Transport of Goods
13) Water Supply Services
14) Agriculture related activities and all allied activities required to ensure seamless continuity of the agricultural sector including availability of farming input, seeds, fertilizers, equipment’s and repairs thereof
15) Export — Import of all commodities
16) E-Commerce (only for the supply of essential goods and services)
17) Accredited Media
18) Petrol Pumps and Petroleum related products; including offshore / onshore production
19) All cargo services
20) Data Centers/ Cloud Services/ IT services supporting critical infrastructure and services
21) Government and Private Security Services
22) Electric and gas supply services
23) ATM’s
24) Postal Services
25) Ports and related activities
26) Custom House Agents/ Licensed Multi Modal Transport Operators associated with movement of vaccines/ lifesaving drugs/ pharmaceutical products.
27) Units producing raw material/ packaging material for any essential services
28) Units that are engaged in production of materials for impending rainy season for Individuals as well as for organisations
29) Any Services designated as essential services by local disaster management authority.
Implementing agencies must follow these general principles about above mentioned services:
1. All enforcing authorities to note that fundamentally strict restrictions relate to movement of people but not to goods and commodities as a matter of principle.
2. All the requirements of movement for performance of services mentioned in this section are valid reasons for travel under 1 (b).
3. Incidental activities that are required for performance of these services by concerned personnel or organization are to be considered as essential themselves. Principle is ‘essential for essential is essential’.
3. Shops falling under essential services as mentioned in this order shall follow following guidelines:
a. Essential services shops to operate while ensuring Covid Appropriate Behavior (CAB) by owners, staff working there at as well as customers in the shop premises.
b. Essential shops owners and person working at all shops to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI. All shops are advised to follow safety measures like interaction with customers through a transparent glass or other material shields, electronic payment etc.
c. Any essential shop owner, person working there at or any customer found defaulting on above requirements shall be punishable by a fine of Rs. 500/- and if the shop is found serving a customer who is defaulting on Covid Appropriate Behavior, the shop will be fined Rs.1000/-. In case of repeated defaults, a shop may be ordered to be closed till end of notification of Covid 19 as a disaster.
d. Movement of personnel to perform duties related to essential shops shall constitute a valid reason for the purposes of 1 (b).
e. For Groceries, Vegetables Shops, fruit vendors, dairies, bakeries, confectionaries, all type of food shops etc. mentioned in 2(3) above, local authority should study the locations where these are densely located or where people may come together in large numbers and plan out their staggering in terms of locations and if need be in terms of periods of operations. Open public spaces may also be identified for shifting their operations, in case of non-permanent structures. Local authorities are expected to take all the measures to ensure these essential operations do not become a place that facilitates spread of COVID 19. If so deemed necessary, local authorities may also declare some locations as closed for these operations.
f. All shop owners that are closed for now are advised to get all persons working with them to get vaccinated as per criteria of GOI as well as prepare themselves with measures like interaction with customers through a transparent glass or other material shields, electronic payment etc. so that government can expedite reopening of the same without fear of COVID 19 transmission.
3. Public Transport – Public transport will be fully operational with following restrictions:
| Auto Rickshaw | Driver + 2 passengers only |
| Taxi (4 wheelers) | Driver + 50% vehicle capacity as per RTO |
| Bus | Full seating occupancy as per RTO passing. However, no standing passengers will be allowed. |
a) All persons usmg public transport to compulsorily wear mask in a proper manner barring which fine of Rs 500 will be imposed on the offenders.
b) In 4 wheeler taxi, if any one person is not wearing mask, the offender and the driver of the taxi will be fined an amount of Rs 500 each.
c) All vehicles to be sanitised after every trip.
d) All public transport – drivers and other staff coming into contact with the public to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI and must display exemplary Covid Appropriate Behaviour. For taxis and autos, driver should be encouraged to isolate himself or herself through use of a plastic sheet or otherwise.
e) Movement of personnel to perform duties related to public transport shall constitute a valid reason for the purposes of 1 (b).
f) In the case of out-station trains, railway authorities to ensure that there are no standing passengers in the general compartment and all passengers use masks.
g) Fine of Rs 500 to be levied in all trains for non-compliance with Covid Appropriate Behaviour.
h) Public transport that has been allowed with some conditions also includes all incidental services that are essential for the smooth functioning of all modes of public transport. This also includes all incidental activities that are required at the airport including handling of cargo, ticketing etc.
i) Persons arriving/ departing by any bus/ train/ flight from or towards place of residence may travel on basis of a valid ticket through public transport.
5. Exemption Category:
a) Offices:
Following Offices shall belong to exemption category.
i. Offices of Central, State and Local governments, including of their statutory authorities and organisations ii. Cooperative, PSU and Private Banks iii. Offices of companies providing essential services iv. Insurance/ Mediclaim Companies
v. Pharmaceutical company offices needed for management of production/ distribution vi. RBI regulated entities and intermediaries including standalone primary dealers, CCIL, NPCI, payment system operators and financial market participants operating in RBI regulated markets.
vii. All Non Banking Financial Corporations viii. All micro finance institutions
ix. Offices of advocates if operations of Courts, Tribunals or Commissions of Enquiries are on.
These should work with minimum staff required and in no case with more than 50% of normal capacity, except for government offices that are concerned with response to Covid 19 pandemic.
Movement for attending these offices shall constitute valid reasons under 1 (b)
Local disaster management authorities may add exceptions to offices if needed.
There should be no visitors to the offices and all meetings with anyone apart from office staff which is present in the same campus must only be conducted online.
For both private and government offices, personnel to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI, so that government may reopen expeditiously offices without fear of spread or acceleration of Covid 19.
b) Private Transport:
• Private Vehicles including private buses can ply for the purposes of emergency, essential services or for valid reasons as specified in this order. Any default will be punishable with the fine of Rs. 1000/
• Private buses, in addition will be subjected to following:
i. To ply with only seating capacity. Standing passengers are strictly not allowed.
ii. Staff must get vaccinated at per GOI criteria and must display exemplary Covid Appropriate Behaviour.
c) Restaurants, Bars, Hotels
a. All Restaurants and bars to remain closed for in-dining, except for those inside the campus and which form an integral parts of hotels.
b. Only home delivery services shall be allowed and there shall be no visiting any restaurant or bar for ordering purposes or pickup.
c. Restaurants and bars inside hotels are to be open only for in-house guests. In no circumstance should outside guests be allowed. For outsiders, they will follow the same restrictions as any other restaurant and bar as mentioned above. Guests of the hotel may move out only for the valid reasons or for performance of duty required for essential services or for exceptions made for offices mentioned in this order.
d. All personnel belonging to home delivery services to be vaccinated at the earliest as per GOI guidelines.
e. All the home deliveries to buildings housing more than one family should be restricted to the entrance of the building and internal movement of the delivery should be by dedicated staff of the building. It is also expected that all the interactions of home delivery staff and the building personnel are disciplined and COVID appropriate.
f. Any default on Covid Appropriate Behaviour will attract a fine of Rs 1000/- on the offender and fine of Rs 10,000 will be levied on the establishment. Repeated offence may be lead to withdrawal of licenses or permissions for operations till notification for COVID 19 epidemic remains in force.
g. All staff working in these restaurants and bars are advised to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per GOI guidelines, so that reopening of these may be expedited.
d) Manufacturing Sector:
a. Following units shall continue to operate and may operate in various shifts as required:
i. All the units that manufacture items needed for essential services as per this order to remain operational with full capacity.
ii. Export oriented units that need to fulfill export obligation.
iii. Units that require processes that are of such a nature that these cannot be stopped immediately and cannot restart without considerable time requirement, may continue with maximum of 50% of workforce at any given point of time. Industry department, Government of Maharashtra should ensure that no unit misuses this provision and follows all reasonable precautions that are needed. These processes however must not be net consumers of oxygen, unless producing items that are needed for essential services. It is expected that these industries will try to house their labourers in the campus or if they are housed outside, then to ensure that their movement is within an isolation bubble, to the extent possible.
b. All the units that provide accommodation to the their labour, working either in the same campus or in an isolated facility from where movement may happen in an isolated bubble, with only 10% of managerial staff coming from outside may continue to work. Movement of the staff outside the premises is not allowed till the end of this notification. Such units may operate in various shifts as required.
c. All staff – managerial as well as shop floor and others – without exception – every one engaged in the activity to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI. These units, if falling in eligibility criteria of GOI for workplace vaccination, must organize these vaccinations at the earliest possible opportunity.
d. Factories and manufacturing units that are operating under these conditions must subscribe to following discipline:
i. To scan body temperature of labourers pre- entry and confirm to Covid Appropriate Behavior of all concerned.
ii. If a labourers/ worker found positive, other laborers who have come into active contact with him to be quarantined with pay.
iii. Factories/ Units with more than 500 workers to set up their own quarantine facilities. Such Quarantine Centers to have all basic facilities and in case of such a facility being set up outside the campus of the industry, the affected persons should be moved to the said facility while ensuring that there is no contact with any other person during the transit.
iv. In case of any worker found to be positive, unit to be closed until completely sanitised.
v. Lunch and tea breaks to be staggered for avoiding crowding. No common eating places vi. Common toilet facilities to be sanitised frequently.
e. If a worker is found positive he or she would be allowed medical leave and cannot be discontinued during this absence for this reason. He or she will be entitled for full wages that he or she might have earned had he or she not contacted corona.
f. All the factories/ industries not specifically allowed herein must stop their operations till the end of period specified in these orders. In case of any doubt, authority to take decision rests with department of industry.
e) Roadside Eatable Vendors:
There will be no serving of food for eating at the location. Parcels or home deliveries are allowed from 7 AM to 8 PM on every day. Reasonable movement for this constitutes a valid reason under I(b).
Waiting customers to wait away from counter with adequate social distancing.
Every one engaged in the activity to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI.
Local authority to have a close watch over such places through deployment of adequate personnel/ CCTV. Any customers engaging in irresponsible behaviour iolating COVID 19 protocols to be fined Rs. 500/-. Any vendor serving any customer engaging in such behaviour shall be fined Rs. 500/-.
Violation would lead to shutting down of the vendor till end of pandemic.
However if the local authority feels that such behaviour is repetitive and is not possible to contain with the imposition of fines, then they may order closure of the location either temporarily or till the end of the pandemic.
O Newspapers/ magazines/ periodicals:
Newspapers/ magazines/ periodicals can be printed and circulated.
Only Home Delivery is allowed.
All persons engaged in the activity to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI.
6. Recreation, Entertainment, shops, malls, shopping centres etc.:
Without prejudice to generality of section (l) it is declared that –
a) Cinema halls, to remain closed.
b) Drama theatres and auditoriums to remain closed.
c) Amusement Parks/ Arcades/ Video Game Parlours to remain closed.
d) Water Parks to remain closed
e) Clubs, Swimming Pools, Gyms and Sports Complexes to remain closed.
f) All persons connected with these establishments should get vaccinated at the earliest, as per GOI guidelines so that reopening of these may be achieved at the earliest without fear of spread or acceleration of Covid 19.
g) Shooting for Films/ Serials/ Advertisement to be closed.
h) All shops, malls, shopping centers not performing essential services shall be closed.
i) Public places like beaches, gardens, open spaces etc. shall remain closed. In case of any public arena that may belong to any of the uses mentioned herein, local authority may decides about continuation or discontinuation of its use during the operation of this order.
7. Religious Places of Worship
a) Religious Places of Worship to remain closed.
b) All the personnel engaged in the service of the place of workshop shall continue to perform their duties though no outside visitor shall be allowed.
c) All staff that may work in these places are advised to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per GOI guidelines, so that reopening of these may be expedited.
8. Barber Shops/ Spa/ Salon/ Beauty Parlors
a) Barber shops/ Spa’s / Salons and Beauty Parlors to remain closed.
b) All staff that may work in these establishments are advised to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per GOI guidelines, so that reopening of these may be expedited.
9. Schools and colleges:
a) Schools and Colleges to remain closed.
b) Rule is hereby relaxed for std 10th and 12th students to the extent of exams. All the staff that may be used for conduct of exams must be either vaccinated or should carry a negative RT-PCR/ RAT/ TruNAT/ CBNAAT certificate, valid for 48 hours.
c) For exams that are being conducted by any board, university or authority outside the state, denial of which may lead to hardships for students residing in Maharashtra may be allowed by concerned department under intimation to concern disaster management authority.
d) Students who have to attend any exam physically, may be allowed to travel along with one adult, on basis of a valid hall ticket for the same.
e) All private coaching classes of any kind to remain closed.
f) All staff that may work in these establishments are advised to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per GOI guidelines, so that reopening of these may be expedited.
10. Religious, Social, Political, Cultural Functions
a) No religious, social, cultural or political functions of any kind to be allowed.
b) In case of districts where elections are scheduled to be held, the permission may be granted by the District Collector for any political gatherings subject to the following conditions-
a. The District Collector can authorize the Returning Officer to give permission for any political gathering for the purpose of campaigmng within the guidelines of the Election Commission of India subject to no more than 200 people or 50% occupancy whichever is less being allowed in any enclosed space and 50% of the capacity be allowed in open spaces subject to complete adherence to all laid down COVID 19 protocols as per the Central Government guidelines.
b. There should be personnel deputed by the Collector for overseeing any such event to ensure scrupulous adherence to all protocols.
c. In case of violation of the said protocols, the owner of the premises should be held accountable and may be penalised under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. In case of serious breaches, the space may be sealed until the end of the pandemic.
d. Incase of more than 2 such violations in gatherings of any candidate, no further permissions for holding any political gatherings be granted by the Collector to the said candidate.
e. For any other event like rallies, corner meetings etc, all COVID 19 protocols must be adhered to.
f. All guidelines must be applied equally without fear or favour to all participants in the election process and there should be no room for any grievance arising from selective or partisan application of the said guidelines.
g. After 8 PM on the day of polling, all the provisions of this order will come into effect in totality for the said area.
c) Marriages will be allowed only with maximum of 25 people present.
a. All the staff at any marriage hall or at any location serving visitors have to be vaccinated and till completely vaccinated they have to carry a valid negative RTpcm RAT/ TruNAT/ CBNAAT certificate.
b. In case if any of the above are found to be without negative RTPCR/ RAT/
TruNat/CBNAAT Certificate/ without being vaccinated as above, a fine of Rs 1000/- will be levied on the offender and fine of Rs 10,000 will be levied on the establishment.
c. Repeated offence in respect of a premise would lead to sealing of the same and withdrawal of permission to conduct any gathering therein till operation of notification of Covid 19 epidemic.
d. In case of marriage being conducted inside a place of worship, it will be allowed to do so with adherence to the above rules.
d) Funerals to be allowed a maximum of 20 people. All the staff should get vaccinated at the earliest and should carry a valid negative RT-PCW RAT /TruNAT/ CBNAAT certificate. Funerals may also be performed at places of worship with strict adherence to the said rules.
11. Oxygen Producers –
A) Any industrial process that is a net consumer of oxygen as a raw material is to be disallowed. Development Commissioner, however may allow the process either in case of process being essential for any of the essential activities or for exceptional circumstances for reasons to be recorded in writing.
B) All industrial producers of oxygen shall reserve a percentage of their production (actual as well as capacity) for medical or pharmaceutical purposes as specified by Public Health Department. They should declare their customers and end use of the oxygen supplied from 10th April 2021 onwards.
12. E-Commerce
a. E-Commerce will be only allowed for the delivery of essential goods and services as mentioned in Section 2 of this order
b. Every one engaged in the activity of home delivery or activity involving interaction with staff engaged in activity of home delivery to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI and if an Organization running e-commerce falls in the eligibility criteria of GOI for workplace vaccination it must organise these vaccination camps at the earliest. For the staff not engaged in home delivery or in the activity of requiring interaction with staff engaged in home delivery shall follow the discipline laid down in (5) concerning offices.
c. All the home deliveries to buildings housing more than one family is expected to be restricted to the entrance of the building and internal movement of the delivery should be by dedicated staff of the building. It is also expected that all the interactions of home delivery staff and the building personnel are disciplined and COVID appropriate.
d. Any default on Covid Appropriate Behaviour while performing home delivery shall lead to a fine of Rs. 1000/- . Repeated offence may lead to withdrawal of license to operate till the end of notification of COVID 19 epidemic.
13. Cooperative Housing Societies:
a) Any Cooperative Housing Society having more than 5 active Corona positive cases will be treated as an micro containment zone. These will follow strictly the SOP laid down for micro containment zones.
b) Such societies shall put up a board at the gate informing visitors and deny them entry.
c) All restrictions of micro-containment zones like control over ingress and egress shall be monitored by the society.
d) In case of default the society may be fined Rs.10000/- in the first instance. Later instances may attract higher fines as decided by local authorities. This fine may be used to employ supervising personnel to ensure compliance of SOP and these orders by the society.
e) All CHS’s are advised to ensure that all persons coming into the building on a regular basis get their RTPCR/ RAT/ TruNat/ CBNAAT test done till they are vaccinated as per Government norms.
14. Construction Activity
a) To be allowed only for sites where labourer’s are living on site. Movement to and fro from outside must be avoided, except for the purpose of material movements.
b) Every one engaged in the activity to get vaccinated at the earliest, as per criteria of GOI and organisations engaged in these activities should go for workplace vaccinations as per GOI guidelines at the earliest.
c) Defaults will lead to a fine of Rs.10000/- for the developer of the construction site and repeated defaults may lead to closure of the site till existence of notification of COVID
19 epidemic.
d) If a worker is found positive he or she would be allowed medical leave and cannot be discontinued during this absence for this reason. He or she will be entitled for full wages that he or she might have earned had he or she not contacted corona.
e) Local authorities may decide to allow any construction activity in view of impending rainy season for reasons of public safety or safety of the structures.
15. Penalties:
All the fines so collected shall be used by the concerned disaster management authority towards better containment and treatment of the Covid 19 disaster.
The said rules will remain in force till Ist May 2021 — 7 AM for containment of COVID-19 epidemic in the State. This order is the suppression of the ‘Break the Chain’ orders issued by the State Government and clarifications/ additions issued thereof to the tune of all clauses that have been mentioned in this order. For any other clause not specifically mentioned in this order the other ‘Break the Chain’ orders mentioned earlier prevail.