City, Ytl out of red zone from Fri, Akola, Amt to continue

Nagpur: Taking into consideration the fewer deaths, positive and active cases of Covid-19 as well as the central government’s new guidelines, the Maharashtra government has left out Nagpur and Yavatmal from the red zone. Out of the 11 districts in Vidarbha, only Akola and Amravati now remain in the danger zone.
The notification issued on Tuesday by chief secretary Ajoy Mehta comes into effect on May 22 and will continue till the lockdown period ends on May 31.Being in non-red zone brings a lot of relaxations for Vidarbha’s nine districts.
As per the relaxed rules, various types of non-essential shops like saloons, spas, private offices, government offices with 100% attendance, RTO registration, inter-district bus service with 50% capacity etc can resume work. Wine shops, which were now giving home delivery, are also likely to open.
Sources in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) told TOI that commissioner Tukaram Mundhe is likely to ask the government to retain city in red zone till May 31.
The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Tuesday asked Mundhe to make a statement regarding the revised guidelines. “After a prolonged hearing, when the court was about to dictate order, it was informed that the government has issued revised guidelines on Tuesday, removing Nagpur from the red zone. It’s obvious that appropriate authority including the NMC commissioner shall have to issue revised guidelines in the light of latest developments,” justice Rohit Deo said.
Like some other states in the country, Maharashtra too has reset the guidelines of categories. Earlier, there were three — red, orange and green. In the order issued by Mehta, the state will have only red and non-red zones.
Until Tuesday, Nagpur, Yavatmal, Akola and Amravati were in the red zone and the remaining seven districts of Vidarbha in orange zone.
As per the list released by the state, all municipal corporation areas from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region fall in the red zone apart from municipal corporations of Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule and Jalgaon. Earlier Satara too was part of the red zone and it has now moved to the non-red zone.
Senior officials said that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray did not approve of the idea to allow activities to resume in the red zones.
After the Centre issued new guidelines, in which six parameters had to be considered, on May 17, the state too revised its categories.
Nagpur got into the non-red category as the city has 374 positive cases of which only 77 are active. Also, in the last 59 days, there have been only seven deaths in district.
Similarly, Yavatmal too escaped from the red zone. As on Monday, Akola had 261 cases including 16 deaths and Amravati 112 cases including 13 deaths. Hence, the two districts remain in the red zone.
The Centre’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) had credited the NMC’s aggressive containment zone model, various measures for fewer deaths and cases. ICMR’s new guidelines for discharging positive patients saw number of discharged persons swell to 290 with 150 walking free in the last four days.
Apart from mortality, total and active cases are also taken into consideration for categorization.
Another silver lining for the district is that over 86% of total cases are from Mominpura and Satranjipura.
Municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe and collector Ravindra Thakre are expected to issue guidelines for city and Nagpur rural, respectively, on May 21, after considering the new rules.
NMC officials and experts say that there are chances that cases may rise now. The Centre and state had given a projection of 75,801 cases in Vidarbha including 18,902 in Nagpur district between May 15 and 31. The administration was gearing up for this huge number by preparing places which had the capacity to hold a large number of people.
Mundhe told TOI that innovative measures had kept the mortality and cases at a low number. “However, there is a need to apprise the government about the prevailing situation in the city which recorded three deaths over consecutive days. Hotspots are still active here,” he said.
Mehta’s notification has mentioned that no one can revise the guidelines without his permission.
In a release, Mundhe said, “City is still in red zone as of now as the new guidelines are to be implemented only from May 22. It will be done only after considering the prevailing situation.”
There are 17 containment zones in the city. The new relaxations will not come into effect in these zones and if any new one comes up.
BJP corporator Dayashankar Tiwari said that the government seems to have revised the category “in a hurry”. “It should have considered the existing condition and projected figures,” he said.
NMC sources told TOI that Mundhe has chalked a plan to bring city from red zone to green. “He will send a letter with a detailed analysis to chief secretary on Wednesday seeking that Nagpur remains in red zone till May 31,” they said.
While hearing petitions filed by Darpan Sales Corporation, Sai Collection and others through counsel Shyam Dewani, the judge Rohit Deo directed NMC counsel Sudhir Puranik to clarify by May 22 on the civic body’s stand on opening shops of non-essential products.
Earlier, the judge censured NMC for allowing hosiery and mobile repairing shops to function but prohibiting garments and mobile selling establishments.