The government has also allowed the functioning of hotels, lodges and motels that are accommodating the persons stranded due to lockdown. (Express photo by Shuaib Masoodi)

The Jammu and Kashmir Administration has decided to allow the limited conditional activity in the union territory following the ease of lockdown from April 20. However, no activity would be allowed in the areas declared as red zones by the government.

An order issued by the Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction department has allowed manufacturing activity in certain areas. These include units involved in manufacturing basic food processing activities, packed food processing items, pharmaceuticals, disinfectants and detergents, agro-chemicals, pesticides, cattle and poultry feed, packaging material, cold storages, packaged drinking water and cotton masks.

The government has also allowed manufacturing in certain other areas. But the permission in these areas would be given on “case to case” basis. The areas include repairing of transformer and other electric equipment used in
power supply, cardboard packaging used by fruit traders, industries and brick kilns operating in rural areas.

The government order says that the “manufacturing within industrial units” would also be allowed on “case to case” basis in areas of medical and health infrastructure manufacturing, IT and IT enabled services, print and electronic media, data and call centres for government activity, E-commerce companies, courier services, cold storage and warehouses, private security services.

The government has also allowed the functioning of hotels, lodges and motels that are accommodating the persons stranded due to lockdown or the employees of medical and emergency services or used as quarantine
facilities.

The J-K government, however, has put certain conditions for these units to operate. This includes that a gathering of 10 or more people should be discouraged, seating should be at least six feet away and work in shifts to
avoid overcrowding.

While making the masks mandatory, the government has said that the employees above 65 years of age, those with co-morbidities and parents who have children of less than five years of age should be encouraged to work
from home.

The government has also made the medical insurance of the workers mandatory.