Coronavirus: States will be the bosses in Lockdown 4.0

It has become clear that states will have a bigger say in lockdown 4.0 with chief ministers submitting their views on how to deal with various nuances during the lockdown and a graded exit from it, to the Centre by May 15.

In a video conference meeting of chief ministers with Prime Minister Narendra on May 11, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did some plain talk telling the Centre that the latter must involve states when decisions are taken.

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And this is happening with the active consent of the Centre, which after three lockdowns is gradually seen passing the baton to the states, which are the actual implementation agency at the ground level.

States have been given a substantial say in deciding the colour coding of zones—Red, Orange and Green depending upon the spread of the disease in the respective regions as well as the time frame and model of quarantine from institutional to home. State inputs played a key role in Railway Ministry’s decision to cancel general passenger trains till June as a number of states in the PM-CMs meeting had raised concerns over even the partial resumption of train services.

“We requested public transport should not be allowed in lockdown 4.0, only those who are stuck in different places within the country or outside India should be allowed to come back. General public transport should not be allowed,” a chief minister said after the meeting.

Even when the Home and Railway ministries issued the Standard Operating Protocol for movement of persons by trains last week, they made it clear “on the arrival of their destination, the travelling passengers will have to adhere to such health protocols as prescribed by the destination State/Union Territory.”

So while Bihar, which had enforced 21 institutional quarantine regime for those coming from Shramik Special trains, decided to send the passengers alighting from Rajdhani Special trains to home quarantine. Karnataka decided to send them to institutional quarantine.

Before running of either of these trains Centre had prescribed an institutional quarantine of 14 days.

While Lockdown 3.0 is still continuing, Delhi government flagged its reservations against Home Ministry bracketing all 11 districts of the state under the Red zone, saying specific hotspot areas, not entire districts should be declared red zones, an idea, which later found favour with many other states. Centred agreed to the hotspot centric idea, which is a key component of Lockdown 4.0.

Interacting with Chief Secretaries of states, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday made it clear that states will have to take a call on whether more stringent measures than provided by MHA guidelines are required in a particular state or district. “You are the in-charge of your jurisdictions and you have to make a call,” Gauba told them.

While flagging concern over the crowd gathering outside liquor shops, Gauba reminded them that their opening was allowed “in response to suggestions by states.”

"I want states to make a blueprint on how to deal with various nuances during and after the gradual easing of the lockdown”, the prime minister had said. On May 14, the Delhi government has already sent its views to the Centre after seeking direct feedback from the people.