The Delhi government has decided to ask the Centre to clarify the kind of shops that can be allowed to open amid the ongoing national lockdown. The clarification will be raised by Chief Secretary Vijay Dev at a video conference convened by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba that started a short while earlier.
“We are going to seek clarifications from the central government on the order,” the person mentioned above said on condition of anonymity. For one, the kind of shops that the Home Ministry wants to reopen.
Left to itself, the city government was reluctant to allow shops apart from those selling essential commodities to reopen at this point given the high number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital.
Delhi has reported a total of 2,514 Covid-19 patients till last night, 128 of them within the previous 24 hours. “We need to get a grip on the situation first rather than fritter away the gains made,” the functionary said.
But the home ministry’s midnight order caught them off-guard.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Anil Baijal also discussed the government’s next steps on home ministry order.