New Delhi: Focusing on international air travel, educational institutions and metro services, the government has begun consultation process for unlock 2 and guidelines are expected next week, officials told CNN-News18.
"Yes, guidelines on unlock 2 are expected shortly," a government official involved with the planning said.
Later on Friday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) clarified that no international air travel till be allowed till July 15. However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on a case-to-case basis on select routes, it said.
Here's Centre's plan for some of the sectors:
Metro
The central government is hesitant to open up metro trains due to rising number of coronavirus cases in all the big cities. While Delhi now has the highest number of cases, Mumbai has shown improvement but now new clusters have emerged in the suburbs. In south, Chennai has imposed lockdown to control the graph. Bengaluru too has embraced partial lockdown in clusters.
Educational Institutions
The government is also hesitant to open up educational institutions. Except Karnataka, most states have cancelled their board exams. CBSE and ICSE too have announced alternative grading mechanism. As per MHA's unlock 1 guidelines, decision on schools and colleges were to be taken in consultation with states. "Schools/colleges will be opened in consultation with states. State governments/UT administration may hold consultation at the institutional level, with parents and other stake holders. Based on the feedback, a decision will be taken on re-opening in July 2020," the guideline of May 30 had said.
Air Travel
The central government on Friday said the scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India will remain suspended till July 15. Consultations have begun on allowing private carriers to operate on some international routes. The US administration has objected to India's Vande Bharat mission under which Air India is flying to US but American carriers are being denied the permission to fly on the America-India routes. US has called this monopolisation and threatened to disallow Air India's Vande Bharat flight. Similar objection has come from UAE too.
Kerala chief minister P Vijayan has also asked the Union government to allow flights to Dubai and other Gulf countries.
Labour
Unlock 2 could also announce more measures to boost employment opportunities for labour force. States governments have been asked to share the steps being taken for skill mapping of the migrant labour force that has returned to states like UP, Bihar, Bengal and Odisha in large numbers. Officials said the focus on unlock 2 will be on encouraging cottage industries and employability of local labour force. The focus in unlock 2 is likely to be on self reliance of industries. Industries will be encouraged to recruit locally available labour.
(With inputs from Pallavi Ghosh)
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