'Economic activities can start in wards not containment zones'

Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar on Saturday said Bengaluru Urban will not be completely locked down despite being declared a red zone.

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“We are now more focused on the containment zones — we have 24 of them in the city right now,” Kumar said, adding that the government is also fine-tuning the issue of the red zones.

The minister said Lockdown 3.0 is the means to restart economic activities in wards that do not have containment zones. Construction labourers are getting back to work and the metro work, for instance, has resumed in several areas. He said the lifting of certain restrictions could result in migrant labourers clamouring to get back to their home states and villages, which would impact infrastructure work. He directed CREDAI representatives to resume construction activities with immediate effect in 414 places. “If we need to retain the labourers in Bengaluru, then the construction activities must resume,” he said.

Kishore Jain, president, CREDAI Bengaluru, said nearly 70,000 labourers are at work in various building sites. “All the workers will report to work from Monday onwards,” Jain said.

Rules are clear

Regarding the new regulations on people’s movement, Kumar said the rules are clear. “We won’t, for example, allow two people to ride on a two-wheeler. More than two people won’t be permitted in a car.”

Latest data from the state Covid war room revealed that 11 wards are currently listed as red zones in the city, which means a Covid-19 case was reported in these wards in the past 14 days.

Another 14 wards have been declared orange zones, where a Covid-19 case was reported in the past 15 to 28 days.

BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar could not be reached for comments on the confusing nature of the red zones. But the civic body’s chief health officer Dr Vijendra Bilaguli reiterated that the total restrictions on movement apply specifically to the containment zones despite the classifications of the red and orange zones.

Data from the Palike and the war room suggests that many red zones are around a 100-metre radius from the residence of a Covid-19 patient.

In heavily concentrated areas such as Hongasandra, Padarayanapura, and even Ward 18 (Radhakrishna Temple), a cluster of cases resulted in a larger containment zone.