Bengaluru, May 17: Left to itself, Karnataka will look to spring back towards normalcy under Lockdown 4.0 as the state government is on standby to resume public transport services from May 18, if the Centre allows it.
Though KSRTC and BMTC have been preparing for resumption of services, officials in the two corporations told DH that they cannot make a move till the government makes a decision.
Transport Commissioner N Shivakumar said the department will take a decision based on the state government's orders. "The government will take a call on buses as well as taxi and other transport services," he said.
Senior officials in the state government said Deputy Chief Minister and Transport Minister Laxman Savadi has written to Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari seeking a nod for resumption of the services.
Transport Secretary Gaurav Gupta has written a separate letter to his counterpart in the Union government requesting permission to operate public transport. "The state government wants the services to open. The official has listed out the steps the corporations will take to ensure social distancing other steps that will be taken to check spread of Coronavirus," a source said.
The B S Yediyurappa administration has been bullish on easing lockdown restrictions.
If the Centre empowers the states to define Lockdown 4.0, Karnataka is likely to do away with the red-orange-green zoning of districts and allow public services to resume, except in COVID-19 containment zones. The government is also likely to redefine its containment strategy by micromanaging localities where COVID-19 cases are reported, without letting life in an entire district get affected.
The government has already shown willingness to allow hotels and gyms to open after May 17 subject to social distancing norms and restrictions. In fact, the government has proposed to allow the resumption of all economic activities in standalone establishments. The government, however, is not keen on opening malls, theatres, diners and establishments that have centralized air conditioning.
“Everything depends on the Centre,” Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said. “Our only stand is that the red zone should be treated at par with the other zone when it comes to relaxation.”
Comments
Why such type goondagiri is taking place in karnatka. Why police are soft on the terror group who are behind such gundagiri. why are they not allowing people to live in peace. Police should trace the culprits from nearby cctv and arrest under goonda act. such miscreants need to be punished to teach lesson to their colleagues. In the meantime, why these youngersters are doing unneessary things and put themselves in truble. Talking to a girl from another community is a crime nowadays and sangh parivar members have the right to beat anyone talking to girl from different community. These miscreants have blessings from bjp. Situation may go out of contral in case Police do not contral these goondas from doing immoral policegiri.
It was wrong that people came in group to hit the boy just because he was talkinng to a girl
Trace out the whole group and retaliate beat them in same manner in Mangalore we not require such taliban kesari attacks.
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