<p>As India enters Lockdown 3.0 on Monday, the fight against COVID-19 will get more federal in nature and decentralised in approach, with states playing an active role in deciding the strategy, revising guidelines and even disagreeing with what the Centre has proposed on many counts.</p>.<p><strong><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/coronavirus-live-news-updates-total-COVID-19-cases-deaths-India-may-2-lockdown-mumbai-bengaluru-delhi-ahmedabad-kolkata-maharashtra-karnataka-red-orange-zone.html">Follow latest updates on the COVID-19 pandemic here</a></strong></p>.<p>The new guidelines give more teeth to the states, enabling them to make the norms more stringent.</p>.<p>The signs of the states’ increasing role began to emerge after the nationwide lockdown completed over a month. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — who had initially raised questions over the visit of central teams to monitor containment strategies in states — on May 1 wrote to the Centre, objecting to its “erroneous assessment” of red zones and sending a “correct classification” made by her government.</p>.<p>Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also disagreed with the Centre’s declaration of all 11 districts as red zones.</p>.<p>He said only containment zones, and not entire districts, should be declared as red zones. “I have my differences on this,” he acknowledged.</p>.<p>On Saturday, Karnataka expressed disagreement with the Centre’s classification of Bengaluru Rural in the red zone and sought its exclusion. It told the Centre that Bengaluru should not be considered as one entire district for COVID-19 containment purpose.</p>.<p>Chairing a key meeting in Patna on May 3, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked officials to coordinate with all states to ensure that those returning to Bihar don’t face any trouble. As per the Centre’s guideline, the period of quarantine is 14 days whereas Bihar increased it to 21 days.</p>.<p>Two days before the Centre announced Lockdown 3.0, the Congress-ruled Punjab announced its own decision to extend curbs till May 17. Telangana had announced much earlier on March 19 that it would extend lockdown till May 7, becoming the first to do so. Just five days before, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the end of Lockdown 2.0.</p>.<p>Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu suggested that while the Centre was in the forefront during the last two lockdowns, stakeholders including states are the key players now.</p>.<p>He said this decision puts the onus of taking forward the virus fight more on stakeholders including people, state governments and agencies concerned, commercial and industrial establishments.</p>
<p>As India enters Lockdown 3.0 on Monday, the fight against COVID-19 will get more federal in nature and decentralised in approach, with states playing an active role in deciding the strategy, revising guidelines and even disagreeing with what the Centre has proposed on many counts.</p>.<p><strong><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/coronavirus-live-news-updates-total-COVID-19-cases-deaths-India-may-2-lockdown-mumbai-bengaluru-delhi-ahmedabad-kolkata-maharashtra-karnataka-red-orange-zone.html">Follow latest updates on the COVID-19 pandemic here</a></strong></p>.<p>The new guidelines give more teeth to the states, enabling them to make the norms more stringent.</p>.<p>The signs of the states’ increasing role began to emerge after the nationwide lockdown completed over a month. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — who had initially raised questions over the visit of central teams to monitor containment strategies in states — on May 1 wrote to the Centre, objecting to its “erroneous assessment” of red zones and sending a “correct classification” made by her government.</p>.<p>Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also disagreed with the Centre’s declaration of all 11 districts as red zones.</p>.<p>He said only containment zones, and not entire districts, should be declared as red zones. “I have my differences on this,” he acknowledged.</p>.<p>On Saturday, Karnataka expressed disagreement with the Centre’s classification of Bengaluru Rural in the red zone and sought its exclusion. It told the Centre that Bengaluru should not be considered as one entire district for COVID-19 containment purpose.</p>.<p>Chairing a key meeting in Patna on May 3, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked officials to coordinate with all states to ensure that those returning to Bihar don’t face any trouble. As per the Centre’s guideline, the period of quarantine is 14 days whereas Bihar increased it to 21 days.</p>.<p>Two days before the Centre announced Lockdown 3.0, the Congress-ruled Punjab announced its own decision to extend curbs till May 17. Telangana had announced much earlier on March 19 that it would extend lockdown till May 7, becoming the first to do so. Just five days before, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the end of Lockdown 2.0.</p>.<p>Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu suggested that while the Centre was in the forefront during the last two lockdowns, stakeholders including states are the key players now.</p>.<p>He said this decision puts the onus of taking forward the virus fight more on stakeholders including people, state governments and agencies concerned, commercial and industrial establishments.</p>
